Hunger placed under arrest in Houston County

On Wednesday morning, Corporal Kevin Taylor of the Houston County Sheriff’s Office, along with several co-workers and supporters, gathered at Publix in Warner Robins and carried out yet another successful Operation Arresting Hunger event. The idea of this annual charitable feeding was sparked nine years ago.

“I started this in 2011,” Taylor reminisced. “I got with my coworkers and pitched the idea, and we all jumped on it and started doing small stuff around the community. The first year, we fed like 15 families. Every year since, it’s just grown and grown to what it is now.”

Each year, the resources needed for the event are collected through campaigns and generous charitable donations.

“We are able to purchase the food by doing fundraisers throughout the year and getting donations from local businesses and citizens in the community,” shared Taylor. “We host a carwash every year, we sell T-shirts, we have raffles and we usually have a basketball tournament. For the last couple of years, we haven’t done one of those though.”

Coworkers of Taylor’s are great supporters and participants in Operation Arresting Hunger’s endeavors. The clerks in the sheriff’s office came up with the idea to dress down on holiday weeks and on Fridays. During those times, they pitch in a set amount of money to wear what they want, and then they donate that accumulated money before Thanksgiving to help with the effort.

The inspiration for Operation Arresting Hunger stems from a combination of Taylor’s past and his present.

“Our job is to protect and serve,” he said, referring to the work of law enforcement, “but I just wanted to reach out and do a little bit more for people. We can’t help everybody by protecting and serving, because some people are fighting battles that we can’t see,” he pointed out. “For some, that battle is poverty and not being able to have enough food on the table. I come from a background of family that always tried to help others. My mom and dad taught me that at an early age. I just intertwined that with my job, and this is what I came up with.”

This year, Operation Arresting Hunger was able to serve 71 families for a total of approximately 300 individuals. It was an amazing accomplishment considering that it was done in a year of a global crisis. Taylor shared that because of the pandemic, his mission almost didn’t take place at all.

“When COVID first came to the United States, and with all the restrictions we were having, I was almost prepared not to have anything,” he admitted. “But later in the year, when things started easing up a bit and we had more knowledge about the virus, we were able to go out and do our fundraisers. We made sure we were smart about it and avoided having big crowds. We did all the fundraising that we could, and the citizens and local businesses still donated money, which was great. In the end, it didn’t really impact us as much as I thought it might. This year ended up being one of the better years we’ve had.”

Though Wednesday’s efforts were successful, that wasn’t the end of it. According to Taylor, not only does the money that is donated throughout the year help with the meals, but after the meals are purchased, the rest goes to a brother-charity wherein the deputies shop with children in the community.

“We select kids from the families that we feed—as many as we can—and in the past, each child would receive a $150 gift card to shop at Toys”R”Us,” he explained. “A deputy would escort them around and push the buggy for them while the kids picked out what they wanted. I think we had 65 children for the first program, and last year, due to Toys”R”Us closing, we sponsored 45 kids, and the ladies at the office just went shopping for them and gift wrapped everything and had the kids and their parents to come to the courthouse where they received their gifts.”

Local children will benefit again this season; however, since donations are still coming in, Taylor won’t know how many they will be able to sponsor until a little later.

The more donations that Operation Arresting Hunger can get throughout the year, the more citizens they can feed and the greater number of children that will have their holiday brightened. Taylor informed that those who wish to donate can make checks payable to Operation Arresting Hunger or contact him at Houston County Sheriff’s Office. As far as hands-on volunteers that help to carry out fundraising events, Taylor said that 99% of them are from the sheriff’s office along with their significant others and children.

“We try to keep it that way,” Taylor informed. “But we do allow others to come out and set up tents while we carry out the events. So, if they sell a product or have a business, they can come out and advertise for their company, and at the same time, donate to us.”

Next year will be a milestone one for Operation Arresting Hunger. It will mark a decade since its inception. While many organizations do special things to celebrate such landmarks, Taylor said that he just wants to continue to expand on what he started.

“We will continue to be the best county and the best deputies that we can be,” he vowed. “We will continue to not only do our jobs, but also go above and beyond to try to help strengthen our community. For our 10-year anniversary, we don’t have anything special planned,” Taylor continued. “We just want to do everything we can to get more donations and collect more money so that we can feed more families and help more kids. That’s all we want.”

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