To my first guest, we all deserve the
basic necessities of life, righ?
But believe it or not,
for some it's impossible.
Listen to these facts, OK?
34 million people in the US are
food insecure and 38% do not
qualify for government assistan,
making it much harder for people
to acquire those basic needs.
The grocery spot, though,
however, is bridging that gap.
I'm joined by their volunteer director,
Darius Tigner. Hi Darius. Hi.
How are you doing? I'm good.
It's so great to see you.
It's important work that you're doing.
I want to ask you perhaps
a personal question first.
How did you get involved in
volunteering for this organizat?
Oh, absolutely.
Like myself and others, I liter,
I ended my job. I got laid off.
And so I was looking for, you k,
subsidized income to help me and other
resources to help me at the tim.
And literally my best friend Tey
On told me about the organizati.
And she was like, hey, we should just go
check it out and get you some groceries.
And I was like, oh,
that'll help with everything going on.
So I went over.
I stood in line and was able to walk in
and get grab groceries that I needed.
And it was such a wonderful experience.
I was, you know,
I served anyway in the communit.
And I was like,
let me get back and volunteer.
And literally, I walked in and asked,
can I volunteer this?
Absolutely.
And so I signed up and volunteed
and it was such an honor to sere
and get back to my community.
And help out in so many ways I could.
So it was awesome.
I love that and I love, you kno,
sometimes people just need it,
the hand up, you know,
and the grocery spot is there to do that.
Tell me about how the
organization got started.
Wonderful. Literally.
Our founders Matt and Stone stad
organization back in September of 2022
and literally was so eager to ty
saw a need in the community to .
And so they put this organization together
to really help the individuals all over,
but especially in the community
that we serve.
And so they put the organization together
and it just went wonderful how everything
went out as far as like the hel.
And the things that they did
in the community to help,
it really was a great save for the community.
Yeah.
If somebody's watching now and
and they need a little help,
how does the program work?
So how the program works,
it's literally, it's absolutely free.
You literally just come,
we're open Monday through Frida.
And so you come and stand in
line and you walk in and pick
out the groceries that you want.
It's no particular limit.
You can grab as much as you
can carry and it's such a
great opportunity really just.
I have the opportunity to grab
things and give the groceries yu
need for you and your family.
I was going to say you know you
mentioned the community and we e
highlighting businesses here tht
help directly in our community.
So, simple question,
but who does the grocery spot s?
Everyone is no particular
class or individual.
Is anyone that's in need
anyone that's looking to?
Come and just get groceries for
them and their families, right.
And where is it located?
We're located instead of Atlanta
in the Grove Park Community.
So we're right off Charlotte
Place on Charlotte Place and
it's very local and you know
it's easy to find and yeah,
yeah, OK. So if someone out thee
is wondering how they can help
keep the the pantry stocked,
what do they need to know?
Literally we take all donations,
donations really help because we
community based organization so.
We're not funded through the
government or any kind of faith-based
organizations of that sort.
Our community help keep U.S.
Open and so any donation that ty
give you know in monetary donatn
really help for us to continue to stay
open and give out these groceri.
Important question now I know because
some people might have money to give,
some people might have time.
Is there one you prefer over the
other that you need right now?
Either one, we'll take all of i,
all of it and talk to you about.
I know you have some events coming up.
Can you tell us about?
Absolutely. So we have our.
Biweekly movie nights,
which are very fun that we do
for the community where they
can come out and watch movies.
We got all kind of refreshmentst
we give and just fun and fellow.
Also, our next event is our July 15th
event and this is a fundraising event that
we're done within the community to help.
So we're going to have different vendors
and food trucks and great musicd
cooking presentations and all of that.
It's really, really fun.
And we love when our community
come out and really engage.
Yeah, I was just thinking when
you were talking, you know,
if you're in a spot where you fl
food insecure, you might also nd
to invest in some community, ri?
Inform relationships.
And it sounds like you're doing
these events to really reach out
to the community to, you know,
maybe maybe you just need a
friend and you can grab some
groceries while you're at it.
Absolutely. A lot of people that come
that it's all about networking ,
and helping one another.
So you get to fellowship with
other people and really interac.
So it's really engaging.
Yeah. And volunteering your specialty,
your volunteer director, tell
people how they sign up to do t.
Literally you could just go
sign up online. It's very easy.
So our volunteer day is on Mond,
Wednesday and Friday,
which is our highest impact day.
So we asked our volunteers to
be there from 1:50 in the event
they didn't want to stay over.
They can to help with the
intake process with the public,
but it's so rewarding because
when we get all these.
You know, we get about £40,000 of food a day,
so we need help.
You know,
individuals volunteer to come ad
restock and put things in shelves and
get the store ready for the pub.
So any help we can have,
that'll be awesome.
Yeah. OK. Monday, Wednesday and Friday,
your highest intake days.
And tell everyone how many pounf
food again. About 40,040 thousa.
Wow. OK. So incredible need.
You guys are helping bridge that
gap and we so appreciate it.
Jerry, thank you so much for being here.
Thank you for having me.
All right. I want to help.
I want to help.
OK And if you do too, please ch.
Him out online.
Thank you Darry so much for stopping by.
Visit the.