MUST Ministries Wins Best Non-Profit in Cobb County

MARIETTA, GA- MUST Ministries was voted best nonprofit by the citizens of Cobb in a countywide vote for The BEST OF COBB, a yearly publication of the Marietta Daily Journal. Voting lasted through January and winners were announced in their special edition publication recently.

The nonprofit category was launched in 2019 and MUST has been selected by area residents both years. “We are honored to have won this award again and are grateful for those who have continued to support and trust us, particularly in this unprecedented time,” said Dr. Ike Reighard, Pres. and CEO of MUST.

Since the award was announced, the pandemic began and MUST started the “MUST Food Rapid Response”. MUST has shifted to curbside distribution at three Client Service Centers, 29 Neighborhood Pantries in schools and delivering to three low-income senior housing facilities. An overwhelming 32,198 people have received food from MUST in just seven weeks. That distribution amounts to 300,109 lbs. of food and equates to 250,091 meals.

“The amazing thing about this feat is that when we combine all of our services - food, housing, jobs, Toy Shops, Summer Lunch and so forth - we were busy serving 33,500 people in the past year. So in a short seven weeks, it’s been a Herculean effort to feed almost the same number of clients, “ Reighard pointed out, “and all of this has been done with a skeleton staff and no volunteers.”

MUST’s Neighborhood Pantry locations in schools have fed 16,629 people in the past seven weeks, almost five times more than last year’s total. MUST provides food for 39 schools across Cobb County,Marietta City and Cherokee County, plus MUST volunteers help the Cobb County School District distribute 40,000 school cafeteria meals each week.

MUST has partnered with several organizations and churches who are also meeting needs in the community by providing food and other resources. “We are partnering with Reflections of Trinity, Mosaic, Noonday Assn., The Zone, Cobb Senior Services, Center for Family Resources and so many others,” Reighard said. The nonprofits have linked arms to serve as many indeed as possible, sharing food and resources to fight this crisis,” he said.

“MUST has responded quickly to the needs in our community and is operating at a higher capacity than ever before,” said Reighard. “We are also retooling our Workforce Development program to help more people receive access to job coaching and are maintaining a vibrant housing program.”

Reighard said when people have run out of their resources and the “no eviction policy” is lifted, MUST anticipates a huge onslaught of housing requests. “ Some have anticipated a 45% spike in homelessness. We are working hard to prepare for that and find resources to fight that epidemic of poverty.”