Closing Comments from the 3/9/21 BOC Meeting

Good Afternoon Everyone: I will start my comments today by thanking Our House, Inc. President and CEO Tyese Lawyer and her team for hosting me and my team for a site visit on February 24th. Our House is a wonderful organization engaged in giving children and families the tools they need to break the cycle of homelessness. Programs include Early Childhood Education, Employment Readiness Training, Housing Services, and Family Services. I was honored to allocate a portion of my CARES Act Funds to support the work of this great organization, and I intend to be supportive of their efforts in the future. It was a pleasure to participate in a meeting of the Rockbridge Coalition for a program entitled “Building Stronger Communities – Block by Block” on March 2nd. The program featured excellent speakers which included Dr. Gerald Austin, Teresa Hardy, President of the DeKalb NAACP, and Karen Davenport, 2nd Vice President of DeKalb Democrats. This is the kind of community engagement that I encourage. I would like to commend Rockbridge Coalition Chair, Lance Hammonds for organizing this event and thank him for the invitation to participate. On March 4th, my team and I participated in a site visit at the Atlanta Community Food Bank. Food insecurity is a challenge that has been with us for a while. The pandemic has exacerbated this challenge. Total distributions from the food bank in DeKalb County have increased over 70% in the past year. Clearly, the need is significant. I would like to commend ACFB President and CEO Kyle Waide and his entire team for the tremendous work that they are doing in our community. And I want to thank him for affording us the opportunity to see the massive distribution facility that they manage. I was honored to allocate a portion of my CARES Act Funds to support the work of this great organization and I intend to be supportive of their efforts in the future. I will close today by once again thanking the citizens of District 4 for affording me this opportunity to serve. It is indeed an honor.