MOULTRIE, Ga. — With the holiday season approaching, the Colquitt County Food Bank needs more donations as it navigates the lagging effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On average, the Colquitt County Food Bank used to fulfill 30 orders per day, Laura Keith, the executive director, told The Observer in an interview Thursday morning.

The number of food orders has more than doubled to 70 orders per day. With the increased need, the food bank is gradually running out of stock in donations and is working solely on purchased goods, Keith said.

She added that it’s becoming more difficult to maintain the stock due to inflations and rising food prices.

The food bank is a non-profit organization. Each year, they create a budget and receive a “sizable” donation from the United Way of Colquitt County.

“Other than that, we’re dependent on donations from individuals, from businesses and from churches,” she said.

The organization asks for donations for the upcoming holiday tradition of giving a special Christmas bag with the December food orders. Any type of donation is acceptable.

“If you go to the grocery store and you buy five cans of food, that’s going to be roughly $5,” Keith said. “It’s going to cost about $1 [per] can. I can go to Second Harvest, and I can get five cans for $1. We don’t turn anything away. We will find somebody that can use it.”

Even though order spikes occurred during the pandemic, the need started rising earlier, in 2018. Keith said the increase was due to changes in the federal government and qualifying requirements for food assistance programs like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly known as food stamps.

“It just made it a whole lot harder for people to get food and to get enough money for food. We started getting so much busier,” she explained.

To receive a food order at the time a person would have to report to an agency like the Colquitt County Division of Family & Children Services, a church secretary and a school counselor or social worker and explain their need. The employee would place an order and pick it up from the food bank and take it to the person in need.

Near the end of 2018, that process changed when a caseworker at the Colquitt County Division of Family & Children Services retired and was never replaced.

“All those thousands of cases she had were just left hanging with no way to get food, and so we had to restructure everything because people had to start coming here,” Keith explained. “People showed up here, and we couldn’t just say ‘No, we can’t give you food.’ It was difficult.”

Assistant Director Steven Gregory created an electronic database to help manage the food bank’s cases electronically.

Now to receive an order from the Colquitt County Food Bank a person must be a Colquitt County resident, show identification and share their address. A resident can receive a food order every 30 days.

Residents can also get rides to the food bank through Ride United, a United Way transportation service in partnership with Lyft. Riders should call 229-985-2627 at least 24 hours in advance to book a ride.

Donations can be made on the website at www.colquittfoodbank.org or dropped off at the current site located at 309 Third St. S.E.

The City of Moultrie received a $1 million grant in January that will be used to build a new facility for the food bank at the site of the old 50 Yard Line Sports Bar on Second Avenue, according to a February article in The Moultrie Observer. A structure fire destroyed the selected building on Oct. 22.

The Colquitt County Food Bank’s operating hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. The organization is considering potential Saturday operating hours in the near future.