Every Thursday morning before the sun rises, vehicles line up to pass through the Georgia Food and Resource Center warehouse. It’s mostly SUVs and minivans, with their trunks and side doors open to receive that week’s bounty. Workers—volunteers and people needing to fulfill community service obligations—stack boxes inside the vehicles as the food co-op members drive at a crawl through the warehouse.

They stop at several stations, trying to catch a glimpse of what they’re receiving that day. It may be 20 flats of fresh strawberries, restaurant-sized bags of fresh vegetables, or both. A miscellaneous box of pantry staples is often added, along with chicken or another type of meat, bulk boxes of snacks and more loaves of bread than you can imagine.

Most weeks, the vehicles are fully loaded when they exit the building. Because the quantities of food are so large, participants usually sign up with two or three friends and split the weekly load. They also divide the monthly fee (currently $175), so each family pays less than $15 per week for a substantial amount of groceries. Often, there is such an abundance that members can share the surplus with their neighbors or extended family.

“If people’s freezers start overflowing with food, they’re not doing this right,” said GFARC Executive Director Tracy Smith. She loves helping people make ends meet. For many years, she worked at another food co-op before she was invited to help start GFARC. Smith was promoted to Executive Director in 2013. Her job responsibilities are extensive, covering everything from finding food donors to loading trucks and distributing food, but Smith says she loves what she does. “I get to meet a lot of different people. Every day is different.”

In addition to the food co-op, GFARC offers a free weekly food pantry. Henry County residents can come once a month with a photo ID showing their Henry County address. GFARC is also an excellent place to fulfill court-ordered community service requirements, and volunteers of all types are welcome year-round. “Everything we do, it’s all about helping people,” Smith said.

GFARC is located at 470 Steele Dr. in Hampton and online at www.gafrc.org. People interested in signing up for co-op, visiting the food pantry, fulfilling community service requirements, donating food or volunteering can call (770) 946-0500 and follow the prompts for more information.

By Kari Apted