After 15 months of service at Golden Harvest Food Bank, members of the Georgia National Guard will wrap up their COVID-19 relief efforts at the Food Bank on Monday, May 31.

Since April of 2020, 15 servicemembers at a time have been stationed in Augusta to assist in distributing emergency food assistance to families in Golden Harvest’s 25-county service area. The Guard has been invaluable in helping Golden Harvest provide more than 14.9 million meals to people experiencing food insecurity due to the economic effects of the coronavirus in Georgia and South Carolina.

“It’s been a great honor and pleasure working with Golden Harvest Food Bank. This is exactly what we signed up for -- to help our communities.” said Sgt. Cory Powell, who has been stationed at the Food Bank since April of 2020. “And even though we are going back to drills, back to our regular jobs, a lot of us have already offered to volunteer. We are leaving in the sense that our mission is complete, but we still want to volunteer and help out on a regular basis. If you need us, call us. We are here. “

The Georgia Guard arrived at a time when calls for food assistance had tripled, the Food Bank’s volunteer program had been suspended for safety reasons, and 30% of Community Partners had closed over COVID-19 concerns. Guard members quickly became an integral part of Food Bank operations, packing up to 800 boxes of shelf-stable food a day to send to open partner agencies across Golden Harvest’s 11,000-square-mile service area and to be used in drive-thru, no-contact Mobile Markets.

“We are so humbled by the sacrifice and commitment of the Georgia National Guard.” said Executive Director Amy Breitmann. “They stepped in at such a crucial time to help us complete our mission. Because of their involvement we have been able to feed 355,741 families and carry out nearly 200 mobile markets since the beginning of the pandemic. Their presence here will be truly missed.”

The Food Bank has been distributing 22% more food and served 23% more families since COVID-19 cases began appearing in the CSRA. Within weeks of their arrival, servicemembers began running Mobile Market food distributions, which are the safest way to provide more food to more families. Those Mobile Markets have put 3.7 million pounds of food into the hands of local families, a 195% increase over last year.

With the departure of the National Guard and the increased accessibility of vaccinations, Golden Harvest Food Bank is in the beginning phase of welcoming volunteers back to serve at The Master’s Table Soup Kitchen, sort food at its Faith Food Factory, and package and distribute food at Mobile Market events. Before the pandemic, Golden Harvest Food Bank relied on more than 1,100 volunteers each month to carry out its mission.