https://www.gilmerfoodpantry.org/

Gilmer Community Food Pantry - Nonprofit, 5273 Highway 52 E, Ellijay, GA (2026)

06/12/2026

Greetings, Food Pantry Family!
🥫 Our Community
Let us begin with the Gilmer Pickleball Club. These fine folks selected the Gilmer Community Food Pantry this week as one of their 3 choices to make a monetary donation. We are honored to receive their gift and thank them from the bottom of our hearts for supporting us.
We got our first-ever dumpster!!! That might not sound exciting to most people, but for those of us who have been dealing with the trash without a dumpster for all of these years, we are excited. A special thank you to our County Commissions who voted unanimously to approve the county providing us with the service. A very special thank you also to the Sheriff's Department for helping us with our trash situation over the last few years.

🫶 Upcoming Events
This Saturday (6/13/26) from 9:00 am to 12:00 p.m., there will be a special food distribution that is being provided by the Optimist Club and The Salvation Army. This distribution will not be like the Wednesday one. No paperwork. No number. No perishables. These will be pre-boxed and shelf-stable foods, like the type of boxes that are typically taken into disaster relief situations. They brought these boxes for the community in December, and they are packed with great food.
Also, this Saturday (6/13/26), you will likely find our King of all things outreach, Dave, at the Ellijay Farmers Market. The Market takes place weekly across from the courthouse just off the downtown Squircle (aka Square). Dave will be there spreading cheer and letting people know about our wonderful food pantry.
This Sunday (6/14/26), you will have another chance to see Dave and me (Adam) at the Cherry Log Christian Church, from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm.

🌱 Needs
Drivers.
The response to this particular request has been almost nothing (insert cricket sounds here). Please ask around for special volunteers who are willing to give just 2 hours a month of their time to help and feed our community...please. It's easy and fun for the entire family!

As always, have a wonderful week!
- Adam, the Director

05/28/2026

Greetings, Food Pantry Family!
Last week of the month, and it was a relaxed day here for the most part. We are always glad to have the opportunity to serve our neighbors in the community.

🥫 Our Community
There are so many people who are helping this pantry out in so many ways. We are always super thankful to Randy for making sausage biscuits for the volunteers on Wednesday mornings. As well, thank you to Mike and Laurie for bringing the volunteers pizza on the last Wednesday of the month. They outdid themself this month.
A special thank you also to Toby and Jessica Kreiselmaier for their donation this week. They are local residential real estate agents for RE/MAX Town and Country.

🫶 Upcoming Events
As many of you know, the Summer Kickoff at the River Park in Ellijay was cancelled due to the weather this last Saturday. It has been rescheduled for Saturday, June 13th. This Saturday (rain or shine) at the downtown weekly farmers market across from the courthouse, you will see the amazing Dave with a booth set up. Rumor has it that he will have candy!

🌱 Needs
We are still very much in search of those who are willing to drive once a month for the pantry. Either doing a pickup or doing a drop off. If you are interested, please reach out to us about it!!

As always, have a wonderful week!
- Adam, the Director

05/02/2026

Greetings, Food Pantry Family!
Fun fact, the Gilmer Community Food Pantry turned 25 years old this year, and this very month specifically! That's a quarter of a century of helping to feed families without any paid employees of any type. This is a 100% volunteer ran operation, and we hope that we will always be able to keep it that way.

🥫 Our Community
Thank you to the volunteers who came from Food Lion this week. This is such a great business partner for our community. Be sure to thank Josh for being such a great manager next time you're shopping there.
Thank you to Mike and Laurie and our local Domino's Pizza for feeding all of the volunteers with delicious pizzas and salads. They do this for us every month! We have a platoon of people here, and it takes a bunch of pizza to feed us

🫶 Upcoming Events
Come on out to Grapes & Ladders Winery to enjoy some great music. Singer/Songwriters come and join Marlin every second Sunday of the month to perform. People are invited to bring non-perishable food (cans, boxes, and such) and/or put money in the donation box. No entry fee, just pleasant atmosphere, music, and of course, wine. Sunday, May 10th, 2026 (Mother's Day) is the next installment of this event.

🌱 Needs
Insulation.
We have 2 really large warehouses that are re-insulated. The current insulation was installed inside these buildings a long time ago. If we were to just remove it, the summer would be extremely hot, and the winter would be extremely cold We, of course, welcome any other bids, but believe we have found a company that is willing to give us a lower price because of the nature of our business.
That said, it is still a LOT of money to do something like this, and we are going to need some big help to accomplish it. We welcome any thoughts on the matter. The most helpful ideas will be in terms of grants or special 'angel donors' who are willing and able to help on a larger project.
Please contact us with any thoughts that you might have on the subject.

- Adam the Director

04/21/2026

Greetings, Food Pantry Family!
It was such a beautiful day at the pantry this week. Wonderful weather. Wonderful volunteers. And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.

🫶 Upcoming Events
Thank you to Grapes & Ladders Vineyards and Winery for hosting the monthly songwriters jam this past Sunday (4/12/26). They are out on Hwy 382, and funny enough, people donated $382 for the food pantry. As well, they collectively brought in a big box of great food. The next installment will be on Sunday, May 10th (Mother's Day, so bring mom!) at 3 pm.

🥫 Our Community
A huge thank you is so very well deserved by Reynolds Brothers Garbage Service. We suddenly found ourselves in quite the conundrum (spelled that word right the first time!) concerning our garbage situation. We reached out to multiple companies to find one that would help us out over the next 6 weeks until things get back to normal. When we called Reynolds, they said they would take care of it for us. This is the business community at its finest!!

🌱 Needs
We need a few good, strong men or women. We have been getting a lot of larger donations from our local grocery store partners. The weights of these pickups are quite hefty. We need a few volunteers who are able to lift heavier boxes on Saturday and Monday mornings at 9:30 am for about an hour to an hour and a half. Please reach out if you are interested!!
It MIGHT have been mentioned already, but just in case it slipped our minds... We are still in search of that golf cart. Again, nothing fancy is needed. We just need something to shuttle people back and forth with to the new auxiliary parking lot. Right now, it isn't something that we badly need. In 6 months from now, it will be very needed.

- Adam the Director

04/11/2026

Greetings, Food Pantry Family!
We had a busy week. We were able to distribute a lot of food.

🥫 Our Community
The fine folks at Bartow Paving Company sent some more things to help us dress the perimeter of the new parking area. They also returned on Friday to put down some heavy rock in the main drainage ditch. It would be hard to say enough good things about this company, the people who own it, as well as their employees. Donna and Doug Jones and their son Mark (who works for Bartow Paving Company) are going the extra mile to help us keep this wonderful new addition in tip-top shape.
Our local grocery and Dollar General stores have stepped up donations in recent weeks, and we are so thankful for that. Also, our drop boxes in front of the pantry have been getting filled heavily by the community in recent weeks. Thank you one and all for giving so much.

🫶 Upcoming Events
Join us this Sunday, April 12th, for another installment of Marlin's Food for Thought. Once again, he will bring in a different talented singer/songwriter and perform for us all to enjoy. Bring some pantry food or put some money in the donation box if you'd like. Or simply come and enjoy the wine. There is no entry fee involved.
Thank you, Marlin, and the fine folks at the Grapes & Ladders Winery!!

🌱 Needs
If anyone has a connection to get free railroad tie-style wood planks, please let us know. I suppose they are 8" X 8" inches and about 6 - 8' feet long.

As always, have a wonderful week!
- Adam the Director

"If you haven't any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble."
-Bob Hope

03/26/2026

Greetings, Food Pantry Family!
The auxiliary parking lot is complete! In just 2 weeks, a patch of woods has now turned into a 100' X 60' parking lot. We can't thank the owners of Bartow Paving Company, Donna Jones and Mark Jones, Tammy Mobley (Mobley Mutt Mission LLC), Tanner Prince (Best Tree Care & Services) enough for what they have done here. A simple way to show gratitude to any business that supports a place such as ours is to give them a 5-star review on Google.

For the month of March, we have continued our 50,000+ pounds of food distribution streak to 9 straight months. This month, it was a total of 51,986 pounds of food.

🫶 Upcoming Events
This Saturday, March 28th, from 6:30-9:30, is the 10th Annual Sack Pack Fundraiser. Come to the Chateau Meichtry Family Vineyard to support the Sack Pack program!

🥫 Our Community
A special thank you this week to Mountain Light Unitarian Universalist Church. They brought out 50 giant Ziplock bags filled with all the ingredients and recipe cards to prepare a meal for a family. It is a fantastic idea that should be very useful to our clients.
Thank you also to Dan Combs State Farm for a monetary donation this week. I believe that they are also coming out to support the Sack Pack fundraiser this weekend at Chateau Meichtry.

🌱 Needs
GOLF CART GOLF CART GOLF CART
We have mentioned needing a golf cart almost 1,000 times. Battery or not, please send one our way!

As always, have a wonderful week!
Adam

03/19/2026

Greetings, Food Pantry Family!
We were not very busy this week. Unlike a regular business, this is a great thing.

🥫 Our Community
So many blessings this week! We will begin with Trinity Custom Homes in Ellijay. Once again, they have given us a most generous monetary donation. Their donation covers just over half of the funds we have spent on food so far this year. From all of the volunteers here at the pantry, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Another generous donation this week came in from The George Link Jr. Charitable Trust. For a dozen years now, they have supported this food pantry diligently. We are so grateful to them for their support and for Mr. Link and the powerful legacy that lives on.
A gigantic thank you has to go out to Tammy Mobley (Mobley Mutt Mission LLC). She financed Tanner and his company, Best Tree Care & Services, to clear our lot of its trees. They did a great job at a reasonable price. Tammy picked up the ENTIRE bill.
Another gigantic thank you to the Bartow Paving Company. They are working to turn our patch of land into a gravel parking lot. We should have a minimum of 30 additional parking spaces. They are doing this work completely for charity.
There are so many individuals who drop by and load our 24/7 bins out front with everything from 50-pound bags of potatoes to a pack of diapers. Daily, we get these donations, as well as monetary donations from people who don't wish to be mentioned by name. It is a wonderful thing that you are doing for the community, and we are so thankful to all of you as well.

🌱 Needs
We are getting our wish and should have a nice extension to our parking lot completed this week. We will have a brisk uphill walk for some clients who will have difficulties traversing this gravel lot. We are still in need of a golf cart. It doesn't need to be nice or pretty. Functional is ideal, but one that needs new batteries would be better than the one we don't have right now.

🫶 Upcoming Events
Be certain to come out to Chateau Meichtry Family Vineyard on Saturday, March 28th, and support our Sack Pack program!

Adam

03/12/2026

Greetings, Food Pantry Family!
We had a regular day this week for our main distribution day.
Lots of wonderful volunteers and smiles.
We don't say it enough...this is a really fun place to be.

🥫 Our Community
Last night, the Lions Club in Ellijay invited us out to their meeting to discuss our community food pantry. Here locally, they have been involved with the pantry since its inception. Last night, they loaded us up with 150 pounds of great food and a generous monetary donation. We are deeply grateful for their decades of continued support for this food pantry.

🌱 Needs
The auxiliary parking area project is now underway, and when it is complete, we will have people (many with health issues) who have a long way to walk uphill. We are in search of a golf cart to bridge that gap. We do have disabled parking spaces in front of the pantry, but we still don't have as many as we often need. If you or someone you know has an unwanted golf cart that you'd like to donate, please let us know.

🫶 Upcoming Events
Each month (Second Sunday at 3pm) at the Grapes & Ladders Winery in Ellijay, Marlin Brackette finds amazing singer/songwriters to join him and perform. They raise food/money for the food pantry. The next event will be held on Sunday, April 12th at 3pm. There is no cover, and a donation box is passed around.
A special thank you to the owners of the winery and to Marlin Brackette for putting all of this together.
For 10 years now, the Gilmer County Optimist Club and Chateau Meichtry Family Vinyard have been hosting this amazing event to support our Sack Pack program.
This is an INCREDIBLE event that raises so much each year to make our Sack Pack Program possible. I'm excited to be able to meet some of you there!

As always, have a wonderful week!

Adam

03/06/2026

Greetings, Food Pantry Family!
This week, we are excited to learn that we will be doubling the number of Dollar General stores from which we will be able to pick up food. The 2 new stores are the ones on Big Creek Road, and the other one is on Chattsworth Highway. In addition, we will be able to pick up more of the food than before from both our local Food Lion and Aldi's stores. Thank you very much to all of the community grocery (and other) stores for their continued support.

🌱 Needs
We are the Gilmer COMMUNITY Food Pantry, not the Gilmer COUNTY Food Pantry. That distinction means that we are not funded by the County. We buy most of the food that we give out to the community. We are 100% volunteers here. Zero paid staff. When we brag in these updates about this community for all that they do to make this happen, it isn't flattery. We exist solely because of our volunteers and you in our community.
Local people, local charities, local churches, and local businesses are all responsible for this being possible.

🫶 Ways to Help:
1. Financial Support
A money donation of any size goes a long way here. Every penny that is donated goes towards feeding human beings (unless earmarked specifically to feeding their pets).
Monetary donations can be sent to:
Gilmer Community Food Pantry
P.O. Box 1982
Ellijay, Georgia 30540

2. Food Donations
Spring is upon us and many of us will be cleaning house. When cleaning out that kitchen pantry, please don't throw away goods that have just passed the "use by" date. We are able to still use much of these foods for up to a year after that marked date. (Please don't bring us items close to or beyond that one year though)
If you would like to donate food or money and wish to do it in person, the best time to do it is Tuesday mornings from 8:00am-11:00am.
We are also here Wednesday mornings from 8:00am-1:00pm. Things are usually busy on Wednesday...especially early. We have food drop off bins by the front door that can be left 24 hours a day.

Adam

02/27/2026

Greetings, Food Pantry Family!
🥫 Monthly Recap
In February, we served 339 families, totaling 55,405 pounds of food. That was 806 adults and 353 children. Thanks to this community, we are able to give out more food per family right now than last year. We served 1,123 Sack Packs to the 3 county elementary schools and the Head Start program. Pet Pantry month total was 1,094 pets at 5,470 total pounds of food.

🌱 Needs
We put out the call to everyone who would listen and it was our dedicated volunteers who stepped up to get things going. Donna Jones, who volunteers here regularly, heard the call and got with her son Mark about this vision. Mark just so happens to work for Bartow Paving Company out of Cartersville. As it just so happens, the owners of that company have really big hearts and like to help charities regularly.
We still need to handle the tree-cutting portion of the project.
Tammy Mobley (she serves here at the Pet Pantry) has some great guys that she's worked with on other tree projects, and she has offered to hire them to get this lot cleared. A few people have questioned the permitting of this project with the county, and that has been looked into and will not cost anything. We do not have a timeline yet, as there are a lot of moving parts.
Early indications suggest that things will get rolling in the coming weeks though.
It shouldn't be a long project at all.
Stay tuned!

🫶 Volunteers and Donations
A special thank you to Katie Sandborn Daker and Buckley Vineyards for the Charcoal Drawing workshop on Saturday (2/21/26). They raised money for the pantry, and we can't be more thankful for the support! A special thank you also for the ones that dutifully donate in multiple ways that ask to remain anonymous. You are such an instrumental part of this organization, and we wouldn't be able to do what we do without you.

Adam

Gilmer Community Food Pantry - Nonprofit

06/12/2026

05/28/2026

05/02/2026

04/21/2026

04/11/2026

03/26/2026

03/19/2026

03/12/2026

03/06/2026

02/27/2026

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