Local food pantry feeds, aids community through services

Chard Wray, the food pantry of Milledgeville, thrives on involvement from the community. A large portion of this involvement comes from Georgia College student volunteers.

Chard Wray has been open and serving the residents of Milledgeville since 1994 and has been located at its current location, next to Habitat for Humanity for the past three years. The food pantry is an outreach ministry of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, located in Milledgeville. It is named after Richard “Chard” Wray who was known for being concerned for the poor and started bringing in food.

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Olivia Mcafee, 12-year-old volunteer from First Methodist Church, (left) and Brittany Smith, 14-year-old from Northside Baptist stock the shelves of the food pantry. “I like volunteering. It’s fun I do it every time I have a break from school,” Mcafee said.

Chard Wray is always looking for volunteers from surrounding schools, churches and Georgia College. One of the student organizations that works closely with the food pantry is Gamma Sigma Sigma, the service sorority on campus.

“Chard Wray is one of the main groups that we work with because it’s very relevant—we get a lot of service hours working with them,” said junior psychology major Kacie Caudle.

Gamma Sigma Sigma is currently helping with a community-wide canned food drive, whose donations will be contributed to Chard Wray. Boxes will be placed throughout the community including schools, local churches, and at Georgia College.

“We’re trying to get it started as soon as possible,” Caudle said.

Chard Wray had humble beginnings starting in a closet inside St. Stephens Episcopal Church, then moving to a room, and eventually a food pantry building space. Since the food pantry survives on donations, it’s imperative that the community remains active in donating, a feat that Sargent says doesn’t disappoint him.

“I am personally surprised. It’s wonderful (the support). We couldn’t get along without it,” Sargent said.

In the past year, the food pantry has served food for 6,000 people, a little under half of those being children.

“I’ve never turned anyone away for the lack of food. If you say you need it, that’s all that I require. No one is ever turned away,” Sargent said.

Chard Wray accepts participants who fill out a simple form including a reference from a church of social service agency. Sargent discourages off the street applicants but will not turn those in need away. Chard Wray also helps by directing people towards other social services such as Angelfood Ministries—another service that helps in selling low cost food to those in need. Sargent has said he has seen an increase in need for the food pantry in the last year.

“There’s not much employment here and there are people who are in need,” Sargent said. “We’ve seen people that would otherwise not need our services because their funds are running out.”

Volunteering at Chard Wray is always welcome. Those wishing to volunteer can do so through The GIVE Center or by contacting Sargent. However, the upcoming food drive is a start for many to begin volunteering.

Boxes will soon be placed throughout buildings on campus.

“We’d like as much help as we can get, it doesn’t matter who you are,” Caudle said “just get the word out that the

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