Little Free Pantry opens to feed Acworth families just in time for the holidays

ACWORTH, Ga. - Government workers in Cherokee County are working together to help make sure families have access to food and other basic supplies. Twenty-five workers from seven different departments worked together to build a Little Free Food Pantry in an underserved community, just in time for the holiday season.

"We care a lot about this county," EMA Director Daniel Westbrook said.

Cherokee County employees from fire and emergency services, community development, the sheriff's office, human resources, and more all came together as part of a leadership class. Part of the program involved a community service project.

"We had a few different suggestions, and I made the suggestion that we create and place a pantry. It's called a Little Free Food Pantry, and it's an outside pantry that you can put donations in," HR Director Kathy Lambert said.

After the team picked a project, they had to find the best place to put it. They worked with MUST Ministries to identify a location.

"It's a big county, and we have a lot of people inside the county, so we wanted to pick a good location that was going to have a benefit from the pantry." said Kevin Lanier, the deputy chief of operations for the Cherokee County Fire Department. "We loaded up in the car, we went around town, we visited several locations we thought might be a good place."

Ultimately, they landed on the Greater Church on Bells Ferry Road in Acworth. Each person on the team used their skills to make it happen. Like Paul Laney, the director of building and development services for the county.

"I got a pantry donated that we could kind of work on as a group to finish putting it together." he said, "We painted it, roofed it, detailed it, put signs on it and stuff - so just kind of put it all together that way.

After working together to build it, they went to set it up, and one team member learned of an even deeper connection to the project.

"We pull up, and I realize not only is this where this food pantry is, I had actually gone to this church as a child and I had no idea. And it was kind of emotional just to see it from an adult's perspective. Seeing this food pantry and the help it was going to bring to this community, and knowing the area … that was a really big deal." Tiffany Ball from the sheriff's office said.

They want this pantry to be a place where anyone can get help.

"This pantry is available 24/7. And so you have someone who might not be willing to knock on the door, but they don't have to with this pantry. They can walk by and get a meal to feed their family or themselves," Lanier said.

"It's a great time, and we have a lot of people in that area who are in need right now, it's starting to get cold outside and we've got Thanksgiving around the corner and Christmas, and we're hoping people can get food and things for their family so they can have a great holiday meal," Lambert said.

It's a project for this group that shows that even when they're not serving their community at work, they're still working to support everyone's needs.

"We want to just find every way possible to serve our citizens and make sure they have all of their needs met. Sometimes that's difficult, but we want to do it as steadfastly as we can." Westbrook said.

"I hope Cherokee County citizens know they're surrounded by a community that genuinely does care about them," Ball said.