Macon Magazine

94 maconmagazine.com | February/March 2025 INTERVIEW BY HALEIGH DEARDEN | PHOTO BY DSTO MOORE Macon Chose Me is a photo series by DSTO Moore highlighting residents who weren't born in Macon but actively chose to move here and enjoy positively representing the community. M elissa Rodriguez- McClain is delightfully a little bit of everything. Her background is Mexican by heritage, but she claims Durham, NC and Puerto Rico as home. Her eclectic educational and professional path took her to Macon, eventually earning dual master's degrees in vocal performance and industrial organizational psychology from Mercer University and Wesleyan College, respectively. Rodriguez- McClain had done everything from working in a rehab facility to auditioning as a professional opera singer, when she found a perfect mix for her talents as executive director for Centenary Community Ministries (CCMI). "Every time I turn the corner there's just something new and interesting happening in Macon that I want to be a part of," she said, grateful for a life made full. She lives with her husband and two dogs, is an active member of Vineville United Methodist Church, teaches and practices at Sparks Yoga, participates in productions at Theatre Macon, and enjoys the occasional freelance work as a nonprofit consultant, adjunct professor, or voice teacher. We asked her about CCMI's food justice programs and what makes her keep choosing Macon. Meliss a Ro driguez-McClain M A C O N C H O S E M E What brought you to Macon, and why do you continue to call it your home? I knew I wanted to go to a women's college. It was between Barnard in New York and Wesleyan [College]. I knew that if I was living in New York City, I would never go to class! I came to visit Wesleyan, and it just felt like they chose me. "You are here, you are now part of us." And the community was so friendly! In 2012, Macon was a lot like what Durham was in the '90s, and so it really felt like home, and it was easy to fall in love with Macon. It just keeps growing, and it keeps getting better every year. We're so plugged in, and there's so many communities here to get linked to that I just haven't been able to say no. Whenever I get either job offers or opportunities to leave Macon, I just don't feel like it's done with me yet. Going back to CCMI, can you describe your role there? CCMI is its own nonprofit that is founded by Centenary Methodist Church. They really wanted to make sure that the ministries that they were called to lead didn't feel like they were mandatory parts of the church, so people in the community didn't feel like they had to be part of the church just to get support. They made the decision in 2021 to have it led by someone who very much was not a pastor. I'm not a pastor or a preacher. Community members felt more comfortable coming through our doors without feeling like they were going to be proselytized to or try to be converted in some way. Our main theme is homelessness prevention. So there are low-income families in the area that are one bad day or bad situation away from becoming homeless. Sometimes it's a light bill, sometimes it's a car breaking down, sometimes it's just an inability to get to work for whatever reason. It's called tyranny of the moment. So your car breaks down, that's a moment that suddenly has this tyrannical-like, overwhelming power over you because nothing else in your life can get done. As things start trickling down, that's how people end up in long-term homelessness. We really, really work to make sure that our programs are creating sustainable support in some way that families can use to prevent homelessness. Specifically, what are some things your organization does to keep our community fed? We have a community garden, and we grow hundreds of pounds of produce per season. We're actively growing year-round. We will lead classes on how to garden sustainably using inexpensive and organic materials. We will garden for families who express interest, and if we have families who are food insecure, we work to try to keep them fed by

• Cover