Issue link: http://maconmagazine.uberflip.com/i/1532159
96 maconmagazine.com | February/March 2025 What do you think has made the food justice programs successful? The ones that are the most successful have community buy-in. For example, our fridge is incredibly successful because it doesn't take a lot to serve that ministry. We have groups who just want something to do, and we have them make sandwiches. You just buy peanut butter and jelly and two loaves of bread, and in an hour, you can knock out 50 sandwiches. You notice that you make all these sandwiches, you put them in the fridge – and if our fridge is stocked, if you come back the next day, it's gone, because that many people have come through. It's really special to be able to see the direct impact. Once you've done it, and it's simple, and you do it more and more times, you're able to just get immediate gratifi cation. Sometimes we'll get calls, someone says, "I just had this big potluck, and we have all this food left over, but we don't have any containers. Can y'all use this at the fridge?" I will literally show up with to-go containers. It's just such an easy way of saving surplus food. I think if every single one of our programs was easy to access, simple, and gratifying, it becomes fairly inexpensive to give. Can you off er a challenge to the Macon community? How can we better serve our people? One of the big things is more of a mindset shift. I think we as a community should be involved with justice as a process, not as an outcome to be obtained. One of the things that I hear a lot is "Well, I really want to help, but I don't know how." Or: "I don't want to be off ensive if I try to help and I do it wrong." There's nothing more beautiful than groups who try something. Maybe it doesn't work out, but they learn from it and try again. I think that kind of momentum is exactly what leads to justice, people just trying things, seeing if they work, learning from their mistakes, and continuing to do more. There's a [The Bitter Southerner] t-shirt fl oating around in some of the Macon stores that says, "Practice radical empathy." There's nothing more radical than trying something that kind of scares you, seeing it impact someone, and then trying it again. You know, doing something diff erent and doing something better. I love Macon. I love the way that it's continuing to change. I love seeing the way that diff erent organizations collaborate. One of the things that makes our organization – and even just me as a person – more successful is that my yoga community connects through our Centenary community, and the Centenary community is connected Volunteer or donate to the mission of Centenary Community Ministries, Inc. by visiting centenarycommunityministries.org to my Vineville community. I really want to see more of that in Macon. I think if there are people out there who don't have a community to connect with in Macon, I would love to talk to them and get them plugged in, because there's defi nitely communities out there that will receive them. I think that's made my experience in Macon the most special. "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 off ers or opportunities to leave Macon, I just don't feel like it's done with me." TOP CCMI harvests produce to bring back to Macon. RIGHT Students prepare sandwiches for the community fridge. Photos courtesy of Melissa Rodriguez-McClain.