Raising the Roof to Fight Food Insecurity

Lisa Engberg’s mission is simple: feeding people.

In 2021, she left her job at a local preschool where she’d worked for 18 years to join The Lawrenceville Co-Op.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, that’s where she and her family had volunteered, and when she began thinking about a career change, the Co-Op was an obvious choice. In August of 2023, she took over as the organization’s executive director.

“We are strictly an emergency food bank, working with the residents of Lawrenceville and Dacula,” Lisa explained. “Those two cities are the largest in the Gwinnett County area, and they’re on the lower end of the economic scale.”

The impact made by The Lawrenceville Co-Op goes far beyond food, but they do provide a lot of food! Each week, Lisa and her team feed around 200 to 250 families. Last year, the Co-Op fed 38,000 people by distributing 1.2 million pounds of food.

The first four times a person or family comes in, the Co-Op’s team gathers basic information: how many people are in the family and where they live. When possible, the Co-Op refers families to other nonprofits specializing in housing, healthcare, financial services, parenting classes and more.

“On the fifth visit, we do a 30-minute interview,” Lisa explained. “That’s when we sit down and figure out what we can do to help them get back on their feet. We also ask them to complete a budget — not for us to judge but to see if there’s something we can do.”

As they help families with a budget, interviewers can often spot easy ways for families to save money.

“One of my interviewers was talking to a senior citizen who was being charged $140 a month for her cell phone plan. He was able to get her on a different plan for $35,” Lisa explained. “Then he looked at her car insurance. When he was done, he helped her save around $300-$400 a month.”

At The Lawrenceville Co-Op, the mission isn’t just to feed people and send them on their way. It’s to use all the resources available to help a person change the trajectory of their life.

“One young man came to us when he was 21 years old. He’d had some troubles at home and left at 18. Then he was having trouble making ends meet, so he did some things he wasn’t proud of,” Lisa said.

“He was facing homelessness and living in his car. But when he told his story, you could really tell he wanted to make it on his own and would work hard to do it. He just couldn’t find that job or opportunity.”

Lisa’s team connected this young man with Georgia Center for Opportunity so he could enroll in its Jobs for Life program. Now he has a full-time job and is living in an extended-stay hotel.

Even though he’s working and no longer living in his car, Lisa’s team saw that he was still “barely making ends meet.”

“He’s proud of what he’s done. We’re proud of what he’s done. But he still needs some more support. We continue to feed him physically, emotionally and mentally,” she explained.

She and her team are now helping him look for scholarships and opportunities to pursue higher education. His story shows that with hard work and good partnerships, change can happen, even if it comes slowly.

“You move forward, then you hit a stumbling block. You may go back a little bit. But you’ve got to figure out the next way to move forward.”

Moving forward often happens through collaboration between multiple nonprofits.

During her years in the nonprofit world, Lisa has seen how some nonprofits exist in a “silo,” disconnected from other organizations. She’s also seen how vital partnerships can be — a core belief of the Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia.

When she first joined The Lawrenceville Co-Op, she attended a grant writing workshop hosted by the Community Foundation. As she met fundholders and learned more about the foundation, it just made sense for The Lawrenceville Co-Op to become a fundholder.

It also made sense with an expensive roof replacement looming ahead. When leaks started affecting the Co-Op’s ability to store food and work in the building, Lisa knew it was time to replace it. But the total cost to replace the roof is $230,000.

Lisa and her team launched Raise the Roof, a campaign to raise money to fully replace the roof. And thanks to general donors, the Co-Op is closing in on its $230,000 goal!

“We want to make sure we’re prepared for the future,” Lisa said. “We’re able to put funds into the Community Foundation that can be invested and will continue to grow for our next big thing.

“So when I go to bed at night, I sleep knowing that we are able to make a difference in somebody’s life.”

To support The Lawrenceville Co-Op, donate to its fund!