The Bulloch County Branch of the NAACP, Squash the Spread, CORE and Agape Worship Center, with some help from the Health Department, have teamed up to provide a combined food drop, COVID-19 vaccination clinic and mask distribution event this Saturday, May 1.

It will be held from 9 a.m. until noon at Agape Worship Center, 810 West Grady St., Statesboro. Participants should turn in from Johnson Street and follow the loop around the church, said Jill Johns, chair of Squash the Spread, a Statesboro-based organization started last year to distribute face masks and promote COVID-19 prevention efforts.

“It will be a continuous-flow event, so anyone that’s just getting the food will be in one lane, and anyone that’s getting the vaccine will be in a separate lane and will get their vaccine first and then while they’re waiting their 15 minutes post-vaccine they’ll get their food in their trunk,” she said.

To sign up for a vaccination time, visit Waycrossvax.coreresponse.org, click “Get started,” and follow the link for the Agape Worship Center event.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and an organization called FRESH Communities are the sources of 1,000 boxes of high quality food to be distributed to people who need it, Johns said. In addition to the food boxes, 300 doses of vaccine and hundreds of masks are expected to be available.

CORE, the Community Organized Relief Effort, will be administering the vaccine in conjunction with the Georgia Department of Public Health, said Bulloch NAACP President Delinda Gaskins. By preliminary information, this will be the Moderna vaccine, requiring a second dose about 28 days later, Johns said.

“We’ll plan on having a follow-up event at Agape, but anyone who gets the vaccine on Saturday could also schedule their second vaccination directly at the DPH through their standard drive-through vaccination event,” she said.

The Bulloch County Health Department is the local Georgia Department of Public Health unit.