When supporters joined in a dedication ceremony Tuesday for the Joe Bill Brannon Pantry – which is the rear, now completed portion of the Statesboro Food Bank’s new $2.1 million facility – some pitched in and appealed for donations toward the $300,000 reportedly needed to finish the front portion.

Johnny Tremble, a member of the local Food Bank Inc. board for about 10½ years and now its president, noted that this is the fourth building the organization has occupied during that time. Previous locations included two former school campuses where the Bulloch County Schools allowed the charitable nonprofit to use space until the old schools were sold for other purposes, and since last September, a temporary, leased space on Morgan Way provided by Pearce Building Systems, general contractor for the permanent building.

That new building, steel with concrete floors and measuring 12,000 square feet, is on Miller Street between Northside Drive West and West Parrish Street.

“We are at a good point now, and we really need to celebrate,” Tremble said.

Finding a permanent place for the Food Bank had been a long-time dream of Joe Bill Brannon. A volunteer in the organization for more than 25 years and its de facto director for much of that time, Brannon died in June 2020 at age 82. Three years ago, Tremble noted, Bulloch County Manager Tom Couch and Statesboro City Manager Charles Penny visited the Food Bank board with a proposal for the city and county to supply $1 million – committing $500,000 each from pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act federal funding – toward a new facility.

“We thank the county and we thank the city,” Tremble said. “Each of them has given additional money.”

The Food Bank Inc.’s “Angels of Hope” capital campaign report showing donations by category through June, lists the county, with $570,000 contributed, and the city, having given $510,000, as top-level “master sustainers.”

Chairman Roy Thompson of the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners, who recently lost his re-election bid but continues in the role through December, deployed a couple of props, or “visual aids,” during his remarks.

First, as he had done at the groundbreaking, he set out a chair for the late Joe Bill Brannon, saying he was there in spirit. Second, Thompson placed a bagged object – an old, galvanized foot tub or water bucket – on the chair and eventually removed the bag.

The bucket was labeled “The Beggars’ Bucket.”

Dropped in bucket

Thompson observed that if 40,000 of Bulloch’s voting-age citizens each mailed in $10, that would be $400,000 for the Food Bank.

“I want to make a contribution this morning. I did this 20 years ago,” he said, a reference to his 12 years as district commissioner followed by eight as countywide-elected chair. “I went in yesterday and got it out of the bank, and on this check it says, ‘Unused campaign funds.’”

He placed the check for $2,599.42 in the bucket for the Food Bank. Donating to bona fide, tax-exempt charities is one of things former candidates can legally do with leftover campaign funds originally given to them by supporters.

Another public donation to the Food Bank was $5,000 from Hyundai Motor Group, presented by HMG Metaplant America Communications Director Joe LaMuraglia.

“This is just a small drop in the bucket of what we plan on giving back in the future, and we want to be a part of this community,” he said.

The Joe Bill Brannon Pantry is the 6,500-square-foot storage area, with shelves now stocked with dry and canned foodstuffs and eight commercial freezers and eight upright commercial refrigerators now in place for meat, milk and other perishables. Plans call for eventually four more freezers and four more refrigerators.

Food distributions at this location began two weeks ago, after volunteers helped the Food Bank staff move the supplies over from Morgan Way.

The Food Bank is currently providing boxes of prepare-at-home food to 60 to 70 families during regular distribution hours each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and another 10 to 15 families in “emergency” distributions – such as for families whose SNAP benefits are delayed – each Tuesday and each Thursday, said Food Bank Executive Director Sheila Stewart-Leach.

Beginning Aug. 1 the pantry will extend its hours, being open on Tuesdays 3-7 p.m. to accommodate working families better and also will also open one Saturday a month, she said.

Still unfinished

The 5,500-square-foot front portion includes the offices, a dividable classroom for future programs such as nutrition and cooking classes, the kitchen and the dining hall. Much of it has taken shape, and Tuesday’s visitors were even able to sit down at tables in the dining hall, but ceilings and interior finishes have yet to be installed.

Stewart-Leach noted that the Food Bank Inc., in partnership with another longstanding local volunteer organization, Rebecca’s Café, plans eventually to serve breakfast and lunch for people in need there seven days a week.

Besides the approximately $300,000 needed to complete the building, the Food Bank Inc. will need about $30,000 a month to buy food and operate its programs, said Stewart-Leach. It has a “membership” program called Pantry Patrons for sustained individual donors as well as an “Investment Club” for corporate donors.

Email Sheila Stewart-Leach at directorsborofoodbank@gmail.com for more information on how to contribute. The Food Bank Inc. is a 501c3 charitable organization, and its mailing address is P.O. Box 543 Statesboro, GA 30459. Its main phone number is (912) 386-1462.