Hurricane Helene swept through Statesboro leaving the town in shambles. But that didn’t stop the community from providing resources for those affected.

On September 30, Pittman Park United Methodist Church partnered with Second Harvest Mission of Coastal Georgia and Feed the Boro to host a limited emergency food drop. Items consisted of ready to eat food, canned chicken, and water. 

The goal of this was to provide food to families who have no other sources.

“We knew that we could be open and we had power and water, I did an initial assessment of our campus at about 7 in the morning. And we knew we had power and water and we thought we got to do something for our community because we have the capacity to do it,” senior pastor Jonathan Smith said.

Jonathan Smith contacted athletic director Jared Benko for assistance. 

“When I realized our volunteers were getting tired it was easy for me to make the call to Jared and say hey could you give us some help? He said I’m not in town but I’ll get on the phone and within 10-15 minutes, he had a whole host of athletic teams lined up to come serve here at Pittman Park,” Smith said. 

Georgia Southern athletes and volunteers around the community helped guide cars to receive cases of water, pallets of food, and refillable water coolers. Pittman Park also provided showers from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. and hot meals at 5 p.m. for those in need. 

“We actually enjoy doing type of stuff, it makes us feel good we’re able to come out and help give back to the community. It’s been hot. But you can;t really complain about the heat because you’re doing such a good thing.” 

Like the rest of Statesboro, Pittman Park is hoping the community can turn back to normal after Helene.