SUMMER
IMPACTreport 2022
HOW YOUR DONATIONS ARE CHANGING LIVES
thank you
for another incredible Summer Lunch program! For many children living in poverty, the free and reduced meals they receive during the school year are the only meals available to them. MUST Ministries has helped fill the hunger gap through its Summer Lunch Program for 27 years and now feeds 6,370 metro-Atlanta children in eight counties in just nine weeks. More children were fed this summer than any other summer in the program’s history. This year’s Summer Lunch was unlike any other as we faced challenges due to inflation, food shortages and a growing need. Generous donors helped to overcome those challenges through food donations, financial support and volunteer efforts to feed the children.
MUST annually serves 53,000 people in need MUST is in a position unlike any time before: more demand for food with less available, higher prices and few opportunities to buy in bulk plus more demand for housing with less availability, sky-high rent and constant evictions as rates increase.
“Our clients are in a perfect storm,” according to MUST Pres. and CEO Ike Reighard. “They can’t afford housing, gas, childcare and food. Many are working two jobs. They’re a reflection of what we are all experiencing, but they have fewer resources and options than most.” Never before has MUST taken care of so many in one 12-month period. “Countless clients who were once housed have faced steep rent increases and are now unsheltered. We used to host about 7 families in our former shelter, but today we have 14 families in the MUST Hope House and 40 families in hotels because we will not turn away children,” he said. MUST helped a record 42,030 food clients and 5,372 housing clients (unduplicated) from July 2021 to June 30, 2022, including more than 2.4 million pounds of food and 2,839 people in eviction prevention programs.
The economic environment has caused a higher demand for virtually everything. MUST is scrambling to provide the usual toiletry kits to families and taking untold requests from sites requesting the mobile food pantry, for instance. “Few people realize the breadth of MUST services,” Reighard stated, “and why we are so grateful for our volunteers, donors and partners. When you consider we provide senior food boxes, summer lunches, job coaching, toy shops, transportation passes, child care assistance, healthcare, prescription assistance, clothing, move-in kits, hygiene kits, hot meals, neighborhood pantries embedded in schools, outreach services to the unsheltered, rapid rehousing, permanent supportive housing, hotel vouchers for families, eviction prevention, mental health referrals and so much more, you begin to understand why the demand is so outrageously high. “It’s like taking care of every basic need for every person in a city of 53,000. The beauty of a comprehensive organization, however, is that MUST has one of the highest success rates in the country. When we wrap our services around a person or family in need, they are much less likely to fall back into poverty.”