Cabot Gratitude Grill getting ready to serve Atlanta Community Food Bank Volunteers.

The Cabot Farmers’ Gratitude Grille is a full-service traveling kitchen where Cabot chefs prepare healthy and delicious meals to feed hungry volunteers as a thank you for their dedication and hard work. They have traveled along the East Coast from Maine to Florida in their colorful Cabot food truck to serve meals with a smile to hard working community volunteers. Last week, the Gratitude Grill made a stop in Atlanta to thank the staff and volunteers who help run the Atlanta Community Food Bank. The scope of work required to run a food bank of this size is hard to imagine. Thanks to a tireless team of more than 1,700 volunteers a month and over 150 staff members, the Atlanta Community Food Bank distributes food and grocery items across 29 counties in metro Atlanta and north Georgia.

Atlanta Community Food Bank staff members. From left Kiersten Kvinge, Genee Morton, and Mark Fields.

Each year, the Atlanta Community Food Bank works with more than 600 nonprofit partners – including food pantries, community kitchens, childcare centers, night shelters and senior centers – to distribute over 60 million meals to hungry families. They could not serve those hungry families effectively without their extensive network of volunteers.

Volunteer responsibilities range from sorting and repacking of donated food items, growing fresh, healthy food in community gardens, supporting day-to-day operations and helping to staff special events. From the ground up, volunteers help this organization run smoothly and serve the community on a daily basis.

The Cabot Farmers’ Gratitude Grille provided meals not only to volunteers from the Atlanta Community Food Bank but also to the staff that runs this immense organization. Scheduling all those volunteer hours, sourcing the food that they provide to the community and dealing with the day-to-day operations of a food bank of this size is a full-time job for dozens of tireless employees.

Homemade macaroni and cheese served up by the Cabot Farmers’ Gratitude Grille to the Atlanta Community Food Bank volunteers and staff.

Teaching children the importance of community service at a young age is important to Paideia School, whose students from Becca and Dave’s class spent the morning volunteering at the food bank. After a few hours of hard work, those little kids had big appetites and were happy to dig into a plate of homemade macaroni and cheese made with Cabot’s Legacy Collection cheddar cheese. Of course, the chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies were a big hit as well.

GoldOller Real Estate staff in line at the Reward Volunteers Gratitude Grill

Atlanta Event. Esteban Gonzalez, Scott Sams, Luisa Bueno, and Ariel Hansen

Later in the afternoon, GoldOller Real Estate representatives joined us for lunch after putting in a few hours of work in the garden at the Atlanta Community Food Bank. Volunteering together as a team not only benefits the food bank, but encourages a sense of camaraderie among employees at the same time. They were certainly a happy and hungry bunch that were eager to chat and enjoy a satisfying meal.