MANNA Food Bank held its monthly pop-up market at Mountain View Intermediate School on Monday, July 27, and the need in the community was on full display.
The event hadn’t even officially gotten underway before cars flooded the parking lot from two directions to pick up boxes of food to take home to their families.
That’s been a common sight at a variety of locations since the market adopted a drive-thru only format several months ago.
Keeka Grant with MANNA suspects that because Macon County relies heavily on summer tourism as part of its economy, unemployment and financial issues have hit local
residents especially hard during the pandemic, resulting in even more need in an area already considered food-insecure.
“Need has definitely increased here since the pandemic hit,” Grant said. “We brought about 20,000 pounds of food today and that’s been about par for the course for awhile.”
Beneficiaries of the market back that estimate up. Carol Aikeman, who recently moved to Franklin, said that finding work in the area has been exceptionally difficult for her, making resources like MANNA all the more important.
Terry Dooley, another visitor to the market, said that his wife was laid off as a consequence of the pandemic several months ago and that his family has gotten by because of MANNA Food Bank and similar resources.
“It means everything to us that they’re doing this,” Dooley said. “My wife lost her job because of the virus and we’ve made very good use of this event ever since.”
Fortunately, the pop-up markets look set to continue into the foreseeable future. Organizers at MANNA and at the Macon Program for Progress have reliably found host locations for the event for over a year now and have seen support from plenty of volunteers, both individuals and organizations like the Macon County 4H Club. Food insecure families will continue to see help coming their way as long as volunteers like 13-year-old Peter Farmer are on the job.
“I’ve done this quite a few times already,” Farmer said. “I like getting to help people.”
Macon Program for Progress will announce the date and location of the next pop-up market in the coming weeks.