By Jennifer Emert - bio | email
ALBANY, GA (WALB) - Hard times have more than Albany's 300 plus homeless looking for a hot meal.
Many who aren't homeless don't have enough left over to put bread on the table and rely on Albany's three soup kitchens to make up the difference. Now the demand is growing and without help those organizations say they're in danger of cutting back, but the Albany Rescue Mission got a visit from "The Love Kitchen."
It's Little Caesars' response to providing quality meals for people who need them.
The Albany Rescue Mission provides three meals a day, that's 21 meals a week for the more than 80 people who come by here, adding up to about 7,000 meals a month. That's a lot of food and without help like they got today from Little Caesars they say it couldn't be done.
Keeping enough food on the table for Albany's hungry is anything but easy, especially when the numbers grow daily. Today the Albany Rescue Mission got a helping hand from a community partner.
"When this big semi pulled up, I was surprised, and we're very pleased and happy to have them here," said Danny Dames, Albany Rescue Mission Program Director.
The Little Caesars on North Slappey sponsored the lunch. When this tractor trailer isn't responding to natural disasters it makes stops at soup kitchens and shelters across the country.
"I pick up the food product at the local Little Caesars, he donates all the food, and we cook it up fresh here on the truck, the trucks all self contained, it's got it's own generator, own oven, own refrigeration unit and we'll cook them up just like in the stores," said Love Kitchen Manager Doug Ruthven.
It's a boost for the Rescue Mission when they needed it the most. "We were thinking about cutting out our breakfast because it was getting just too expensive," said Dames.
But with help from business partners like Little Caesars, what would have been today's lunch can be saved for another day. Hopefully with help from other community partners the Rescue Mission can continue their three meals.
"Yes, more, like Little Caesars where they can come up and volunteer their time and help us out in our responsibility to feed the homeless," said Dames.
The Rescue Mission is getting help from other businesses in the community as well, businesses that include Red Lobster, Pizza Hut, Winn Dixie, the Food Bank and Sam's Club who regularly provide donations and meals for the Rescue Mission. They say without the help of those business partners they couldn't meet the demand.
Little Caesars Love Kitchen has fed more than two million people in 48 states and four Canadian provinces. Tomorrow the kitchen on wheels will make a lunch stop at the Tifton Soup Kitchen.
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