3 4 | M A C O N M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y / M A R C H 2 0 1 9
Backpack
Buddies
Weekend meal delivery fosters better student
relationships, attitudes and grades
BY MICHAEL W. PANNELL
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATTHEW ODOM
B
renda Lambert and Ann Adkisson are hustling, working
quickly getting stacked boxes of peanut butter unpacked
and jars shelved before a team of volunteers arrives to
repack them with other food items in bags or backpacks.
It 's hurried but familiar work.
The peanut butter came from the Middle Georgia
Community Food Bank. Volunteers – about 400 in total – come
from Forest Hills United Methodist Church and dozens of
partner organizations, businesses, churches, schools, universities
and families. They regularly pack and deliver weekend food
parcels to nearly 2,000 students at 22 schools in Macon-Bibb,
Monroe and Twiggs counties.
Adkisson remembers eight years ago when Lambert – her
