By Mark Woolsey
Several police departments in Cobb and Cherokee counties now have another resource aimed at helping people in need they encounter on patrol.
The new tool is food bags or kits, if you will, stashed in police patrol cars and designed to give the hungry and hurting on-the-spot assistance.
“It can go a number of ways,” says Lester Maddox, director of security at MUST Ministries, who formulated the idea.
He said,”You may just need some water, a bottle of water, and a little snack to get them hydrated and back on their feet.” Or more might be needed.
The kits are designed to feed one person for two meals and contain shelf-stable nonperishable food. The contents range from Ritz crackers, potato chips, Pop Tarts, beef jerky and canned goods like ravioli to bottles of water and fruit drinks.
The focus is on anything that doesn’t need to be refrigerated or heated up, according to MUST.
Maddox says the idea arose in part from his 27 years as a Cobb Police officer before retiring in 2022. He also says part of his current job is doing outreach with local law enforcement agencies, knowing that they are often the first to come across people in a bad spot.
“As a police officer, you encounter a variety of needs each day, The idea is for the officers to have a tool for someone in crisis. “Then (we) loop them back around into the wraparound services that MUST can provide, “ he says.
Maddox adds that he checked with a number of local police chiefs who indicated their support, and was also inspired by the story of a patrol officer in Cobb County getting a hotel room for a destitute family-paying for it out of his own pocket.
He ran the idea by and coordinated with MUST higher-ups and not too much longer than that later, volunteers were packing 200 food kits-40 for each of five law enforcement agencies including Marietta, Kennesaw and Canton police.
Canton Police Chief Marty Ferrell salutes the fledgling program.
“There is a need in the community,” he says. As to the types of hunger situations his officers would encounter, “we don’t have as many homeless as in some jurisdictions.” He indicates the spotlight may well turn more on those who live in extended-stay hotels. Those hotel properties are for some, just a step away from homelessness.
“ You may come upon someone who’s standing by the road or in a parking lot and they don’t have anything. It’s nice to give them something, a bottle of water, Gatorade, snacks. It’s being human,” says the Canton chief.
As to whether the program will continue, Maddox is hopeful.
Ferrell indicated that the funding source may have to be hashed out and thinks there might be pushback if it were to be supported through taxpayer funds. He thinks funding through MUST and its private donors wouldn’t seem to be an issue.
Maddox notes that the distribution to departments ended Aug. 18 and that he has not yet heard any feedback. But “I’m excited to see the stories coming out of it, That’s one of the things about working at MUST Ministries. You hear a lot of success stories.”