A Note from our Legal Food Frenzy Partner: YLD President, Brittanie Browning
My name is Brittanie Browning, and I serve as the President of the Young Lawyers Division of the State Bar of Georgia. The Young Lawyers Division is known as the service arm of the Bar with a goal to serve our communities across the state of Georgia. The Legal Food Frenzy is now in its 13th year as a two-week friendly competition to raise as much money as possible for food banks across the state. It is specially timed to occur before the summer break months to provide funding when the need grows.
The reason that I remain passionate is the real people impacted by our efforts. I mentored an elementary school student for a few years. Her school had 75% or more students receiving free or reduced meals. Those meals provided by the school were breakfast and lunch. That means that the students (and their families) rely on the school to feed them two meals a day during the school year. The school, in conjunction with the Atlanta Community Food Bank, provided backpacks with food on Fridays for the students to take home for the weekend. However, when school is out, those meals stop. Families turn to the local food bank to fill the gap. Hunger directly impacts learning and students’ concentration. It is so vital to have nutritious meals for growing children. When I participate and donate to this cause, I think of my mentee and her family. I think about the energetic and creative kindergarteners that I read to during an early morning reading session. Those are the faces that remind me of the reason this cause is so important.
The Legal Food Frenzy is a collaboration of the Georgia Attorney General’s Office, the Young Lawyers Division, the State Bar of Georgia, and Feeding Georgia. I began my involvement with the Legal Food Frenzy when I worked for the Attorney General’s Office. The Attorney General helped bring the competition to Georgia a few years prior to my involvement, and it led to my meeting with the representatives from Feeding Georgia. Together, we planned outreach efforts to continue to expand the program to new law firms, in-house legal departments, and other entities. Each year, new firms and new lawyers get involved to support this worthy cause. The real “win” is seeing more companies and firms participate in the Legal Food Frenzy because it inspires others to join us for this event. I am inspired by the efforts and results of our legal community. As a profession, we saw a need in our community and helped to bridge the gap in food security.
Hunger is a statewide issue. As I practice in Metro Atlanta, my “local” food bank is the Atlanta Community Food Bank. Every dollar that I donate will go to my local food bank. That is the reason it is important to donate because it directly supports your local food bank – no matter if you live in Savannah, Dalton, or Valdosta. We have partners across the state that rely on these donations before the summer break for schools. All donations stay in the region in which they are raised so it will directly help your neighbors. The reason that these funds go further than we can do individually is because our food banks can leverage our donations to make an even greater impact than we can do as individuals. The buying power of the food banks allows them to take $1 and turn it into 3 meals.
As the current Young Lawyers Division President, I am honored to participate in the annual Legal Food Frenzy and help lead this year’s efforts. Each year we aim higher to raise even more funds for our local food banks across the state of Georgia. Together we can join as a profession to help our neighbors, senior citizens, families, and children. Each year we have reached more lawyers and set the goal to match the milestone for the Atlanta Community Food Bank, which served its one billionth meal last year. While that is outstanding work, it shows the importance and need for our food banks. Recently, our food banks have seen a 30% increase in demand.
The legal profession can help the crucial work of our food banks in Georgia by coming together for a common goal: food security. Together we can increase awareness of food insecurity and raise funds to help our neighbors and community have food security. I invite you to join our efforts this year – whether it is your first year or 13th year participating – and make a difference to benefit our neighbors. This year, we have a goal to raise $1 million for Georgia food banks. I hope that you can join us to reach this goal and make it a reality.
