Elizabeth Strawn Loves Life
Elizabeth Strawn says she is a “little people” person, referring to the ages she enjoyed teaching the most before she retired. She’s taught pre-kindergarten through fourth grade, and she said she definitely prefers the little ones.
And, she started teaching in Florida then moved back to Georgia and had to get a whole new teaching certificate which entailed taking the Praxis. She said they don’t make it easy to move state to state.
Her education crossed Georgia and Florida, too. She began working on her teaching degree at Georgia State College for Women (now Georgia College and State University), and completed her degree at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. After returning to Georgia, Ms. Strawn taught in Butts, Newton and Jasper Counties before retiring some years ago.
Now she stays busy volunteering. She was recommended for a “neighbor” story because of her work with the Jasper County Community Food Bank. She is passionate about it, and has been volunteering with it since soon after she retired from teaching. She is in her 10th year, and remembers when it was housed in the old Bill’s Dollar Store on Funderburg Drive, and then in the basement of the Sunrise Thrift Store. It has its own home now, on Post Road, and it still has plenty of clients.
Two weeks ago, the Food Bank offered a special distribution of foods they had received from the Middle Georgia Food Bank. They gave out 225 boxes of food and recipients included families and a lot of seniors. The Senior Center took its eligible clients to pick up the foods in the special distribution. It included fresh produce and meat as well as canned goods. Ms. Strawn said they had plenty of volunteers, and that many of the volunteers are also recipients.
With the large special distribution, 20 volunteers worked together, forming an assembly line, and filling boxes. The Food Bank is typically open from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Tuesday and Thursday, and they fill about 60-75 orders per day. The amount of food in the box depends on who is receiving the food, such as a senior living alone or a family with children.
Food Bank recipients are screened, having to show proof of income, including SNAP benefits, social security, SSID or pay stub, if applicable. Also, proof of disability if applicable, birth certificates for children under 18 in the home. However, no one needing food is turned away. She said recipients get a punch card and get three visits per month to the Food Bank. The special distribution was in addition to the three visits. She said all recipients must live in Jasper County and show proof of residency.
Ms. Strawn said most of the local churches donate to the Food Bank, and this month Ameris Bank is having a food drive at the Chamber of Commerce. They are trying to “fill the window” with groceries for the needy. And, this is the time of year they start collecting to fill the Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets. Last year, the Food Bank distributed some 200 turkeys at Thanksgiving. It does a special distribution for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.
Luckily, people like to donate around the holidays, so the Food Bank gets donations to help with the special occasion baskets. She said January and February are slow for donations, and they need more food in the summer when children are out of school. The Food Bank takes monetary and physical donations. So, interested persons may donate food or money. She said they spend about $1,500 a month in Macon at the Middle Georgia Food Bank, and they get a donation once a month from the Midwest Food Bank in Peachtree City.
The food they buy in Macon at the Middle Georgia Food Bank costs considerably less than what they would have to pay retail. They can stretch a dollar a long ways.
They also get excess from Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, and reciprocate when they have excess. She said the schools are good about having food drives, and when the shelves get empty, all the Food Bank has to do is send the word out, and the community responds. She said it certainly wouldn’t be able to do what it does if not for the generosity of the people in the community.
Other sources of funding include the Poker Run on Jackson Lake in June, and a raffle during the Deer Festival as well as other fund raisers during the year.
Besides the Food Bank, Ms. Strawn volunteers with the Jasper County Mentor Program. She is also an active member of Monticello Presbyterian Church where she serves on the Session.
Ms. Strawn ended up in Monticello when she moved back from Florida some 21 years ago because one of her sons and two grandsons lived here, and she remembered coming to the lake when she was growing up. The son who lives here has a two sons who graduated from Jasper County High School. There were 106 in one of their graduating classes. Ms. Strawn recalls when she graduated from Henry County High School —the only high school in that county– there were 106 graduates in her class.
She said upon returning to Georgia she found a little cottage by the lake where she enjoys kayaking. She also likes to lie in her hammock and watch the hummingbirds and read. Ms. Strawn said she really likes antique shopping, and shops for primitive stuff and lake stuff. In addition to antiquing and reading, she enjoys traveling and visiting her son in Atlanta, and her grandsons—one in Charlotte, N.C., and the other in Milledgeville.
It’s easy to see that Elizabeth Strawn may be retired, but she has little down time. She encourages everyone to volunteer, and says the Food Bank can always use more volunteers. She said they have a lot of fun, and it’s rewarding work.
