Food insecurity wasn’t unfamiliar to her. LindsayAnn Hammarlund, a lead volunteer at New Path 1010, had volunteered with the Junior League of Athens at organizations focused on food bags for kids in need before New Path ever existed.

But one Sunday at church a couple of years later, she felt called to serve with the then-in-progress program that would become New Path 1010.

“I’m a member at Bethlehem Church – which New Path 1010 started out of – and I worked really closely with Candy Greene. When they announced on stage that they were starting this nonprofit, I just had a tug on my heart,” she said. 

“I went up to Candy the minute the service was over and was like, ‘I want to help however I can; just let me start.’ So I started volunteering with New Path from the very beginning.”

Even outside of her previous volunteerism, Candy had seen the need for New Path’s work firsthand through her career as a teacher.

“I started my teaching career in Clarke County, and over those six years, I taught a ton of students who needed food bags during the week,” she said. “At first with New Path, we didn’t have many schools and we didn’t have that many bags to pack, but it was incredible just getting to be able to serve Barrow County schools. 

“Then as we started growing, my role evolved to take some leadership roles leading and coordinating the packs every Monday morning.

“And while the Lord called me back to teaching, I didn’t want to quit volunteering – so I started doing a lot of the behind-the-scenes work. Now I do all the scheduling for our volunteer and partner groups, order all the food that goes into the bags, answer emails, coordinate our leadership team and main volunteers, handle a good bit of our social media and write and design all the cards that go into the food bags we give out.”

LindsayAnn is clearly a vital part of the work New Path does. But why do they do it? 

“The whole purpose of New Path is to help end the generational poverty in our area and equip these kids and these families to be able to break through. Our food bags are very tangible help, and it’s really important for kids, but we want to help the parents, too. 

“COVID really pushed a lot of our plans off, but there are lots of plans and prayers for the future of the other parts of New Path. There’s a lot of good things on the horizon!”

One story in particular stands out to Lindsay as a perfect example of the vital importance of their work.

“One Thursday afternoon, I’d just delivered bags to the school where my husband teaches and my children attend. It was the week before fall break in Barrow County. My husband called me kind of in a panic, and I knew because he was calling me from school, it couldn’t be good,” LindsayAnn said.

“He said that the school counselor needed our help because a church that usually brings food for kids in the school didn’t show up that week with any of the food – and kids were about to go on a week-long break. 

“I called three of our volunteers that helped every week and said ‘We’re going to pack bags. No, we haven’t ordered the correct amount of food for this, but it doesn’t matter. We can get more food next week, but these kids need food now.

“That afternoon we packed about 60 bags as quickly as we could and got them to those kids before they went out for break. That began our partnership with Statham Elementary School. 

“In that moment, we were just like, ‘Okay, Lord – You’ve opened this door, and here we are.’ It was really cool to see the volunteers come together and have that school trust us to serve their kids.”

The food New Path 1010 gives out isn’t the type kids turn their noses up at, either. It’s stuff they love to eat and can prepare – a priority for the families they serve.

“The kids can prepare all the food in the bag themselves. Every week, we try to give kids at least two solid meals, and we also throw some snacks in there – and we try to make it as yummy as possible,” she said. “Everything is easy to open, microwaveable and all good food. We don’t send old bread or food they can’t open – it’s all very appealing to kids.”

“Also, our bags are solid color drawstrings that can easily fit in backpacks. We really try to ensure food is given to them in a way that doesn’t embarrass them or make them feel less than.”

Luckily for LindsayAnn, she’s not the only one in her family passionate about New Path’s work.

“Volunteering is totally a family thing,” she said. “COVID was a big time for our family to serve together. We thought we’d just be out of school for two weeks, but we ended up partnering with the Northeast Georgia Food Bank and were able to go and serve with them with food trucks or families could come and pick up bags.

“My husband, Eric, is a huge supporter of New Path. Just because of what it is, but also with him seeing firsthand his students getting the bags – that’s really important to him.

“He’s also said multiple times that the kids who get those bags sometimes will even be sharing the food out of their bags.”

Through her teacher husband Eric, LindsayAnn gets to hear some sweet stories of the way New Path’s food bags impact real kids in the area. One especially stands out to her: 

“Sometimes we’ll get donations from organizations or churches, and we are so thankful for them. But one time, we got a donation of really fun, very unhealthy stuff – that, of course, every kid is gonna want – from a gas station that was going out of business. And so this food wasn’t expiring, but it was like champion stuff,” she said. 

“We surprised the kids and put it in their bags. Because my husband is a teacher, he saw kids get their bags every week. He tells me that they always read the message first, which is really important to us. 

“But this week, one kid opened his bag and found a giant rice crispy. He told my husband, ‘Mr. Eric – they surprised us this week with the best treat ever!’ To some kids, to those of us who are not struggling to eat every day that’s not a big deal. But to a lot of these kids having that extra special treatment, that’s big for them!”

It’s her firsthand experience with New Path 1010 that prompts LindsayAnn to encourage others to step in and support its work in whatever way they can.

“People should get involved with New Path 1010, because it’s literally the best ever,” LindsayAnn laughed. “It’s a really easy, fun way to serve our community, and these kids are so important to the future of Barrow County and Georgia and our world. It makes me teary.” 

“Knowing that a food bag may be the brightest moment of their week is really important to us. It takes an hour max of your time to serve on Monday mornings or to donate – it doesn’t take much. We’re so appreciative of it, and we know the kids are too.”