Feeding the Hungry
One Roof and Coweta Community Food Pantry
Written and Photographed by JOAN DOGGRELL
One Roof Executive Director Ann Kerlin, center, spreads Thanksgiving love with clients Midorys Migueles, left, and Glenda Tucker who received turkeys for the holiday.
Walk into any supermarket in Coweta County, and you’ll see an array of delicious food that a Roman emperor would envy. And it's all available to Coweta County residents – as long as they have money.
But what if you’re receiving a welfare check and food stamps and working two or three jobs, and after you’ve paid your other expenses, there isn’t enough money left to feed your family?
According to the Coweta County website, as of 2023, the county’s population was estimated at 155,892, and 7.5% of these – or 11,691 people – lived in poverty.
Fortunately for Coweta, at least 10 nonprofit agencies here offer food pantries, staffed by caring people, to help meet this need. One of these is One Roof.
One Roof was established in 2007 when several churches combined their resources to provide a centralized place where people could go for help. This group joined forces with the Coweta Community Food Pantry and aptly named their new partnership One Roof.
Board Member Gina Watkiss remembers hearing how the food pantry was started at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church over 30 years ago.
“In those days, it was a closet at St. Paul’s,” she recalls. “Then it was moved into the old Beavers Packing Company on Greenville Street. In 2007, St Paul’s food pantry joined One Roof, which was housed in the office of the old Playtex plant on Temple Avenue. In 2014, we all moved into larger quarters at 255 Temple Avenue, where we are today.”
Watkiss teaches at The Heritage School and is proud of her students’ efforts to assist One Roof. She advises the Heritage Key Club, a Kiwanis-sponsored service organization. This year, The Heritage School raised over $11,000 for the food pantry at One Roof by holding a Homecoming competition to elect school royalty; parents, grandparents and the community were generous in their support, according to Watkiss who adds, “Coweta County people are very generous.”
Dr. Ann Kerlin, One Roof’s executive director, has a master’s degree in divinity and a doctorate in counseling; however, she says she always felt called outside of the Church.
“Helping my community was something I really, really wanted to do.”
“Helping my community was something I really, really wanted to do,” says Kerlin.
She does this full-steam-ahead at One Roof where those who need assistance can apply; they'll qualify if they live in Coweta County and don’t earn more than twice the poverty limit. Qualified clients receive a box of dry goods twice a month plus bread and pastries donated regularly by the bakery at Publix.
One Roof supplies fresh fruit, vegetables and meat when they can, and they routinely feed more than 500 people each month.
The amount of food each client receives is determined by the size of their family.
From left, One Roof employees Katherine Cleveland, her brother Woodrow Geter and Desiree Boyd stock the pantry. The Geter family has volunteered and worked with One Roof since its creation in 2007.
For Thanksgiving, clients get a box of dry goods with holiday fixings and a turkey.
“That’s always a big event, and we enjoy it,” says Kerlin.
Where does the food come from?
“We get half of our food from volunteer church groups, schools and businesses who collect it from their members all year long,” says Kerlin. “The Newnan Junior Service League’s Can-A-Thon is the biggest fundraiser we have, and we draw from
Atlanta Community Food Bank and Midwest Food Bank as well.”
Sometimes Kerlin gets a call from a trucker whose load of fresh food was rejected by a customer. The dispatcher may direct them to take the food to One Roof.
“I don’t think anything we’ve given out is being wasted,” says Kerlin. “Every week, I get to do something tangible where I see the difference we’re making. Yep, we are doing something that matters.”
Kerlin says it’s also part of the One Roof mission to give people opportunities to serve the Lord. Since One Roof relies on volunteers, this mission goal is met as well. Kerlin encourages anyone interested in volunteering to drop by One Roof Thrift Store. She’ll put you on the volunteer work schedule! NCM
