Truist $1 million donation will help fund 'The Table' service hub
Mar. 28—ALBANY — Atlanta-based Truist Foundation has cut a million-dollar check in support of a vision to transform a former grocery store into a hub offering banking, food and health solutions.
Truist is presenting the gift to The Sherrod Institute's Southwest Georgia Project and Albany Community Together, joint developers in a visionary community service hub that will be known as "The Table of Southwest Georgia."
"We thank Truist for its generous gift, which will move us closer to realizing our vision of addressing disparities of health, wealth and food in a part of Albany sorely in need," Shirley Sherrod, CEO and president of the Sherrod Institute, said.
The funds will be used toward the renovation of the old Winn Dixie grocery store at 200 East Oakridge Drive that sat vacant until 2015, when the previous owners donated it to The Sherrod Institute's Southwest Georgia Project.
Truist Foundation will present the check Thursday at 11 a.m. on the front plaza of ACT's headquarters at the Arthur K. Williams Micro Business Center at 230 S. Jackson St. at Highland Avenue in Albany. The event is free and open to the public.
For the last 24 months, Sherrod has been working with Dr. Dianna Grant, chief of medicine at Phoebe Putney Health System, and Thelma Johnson, chief executive officer of ACT, to address disparities in a section of Albany hit hard by poverty, Mother Nature, COVID and disinvestment.
In 2018, Sherrod and Dr. Derek Heard of Phoebe Health System flew to Minneapolis to visit a hospital that had partnered with a local nonprofit on a similar project. However, COVID sidelined Phoebe's involvement for a period, which is when ACT entered the picture.
The partners say they expect to begin renovation on the 46,890 square foot space later this fall, with a completion date in late 2025.
Sherrod explained that The Table's programmatic focus is three-pronged. The Sherrod Institute's Southwest Georgia Project will run an aggregation and distribution center for area black farmers, allowing them to pool their produce, reach a market and compete.
Phoebe Health System will collaborate with Dr. Douglas Patten, the associate dean of the Southwest Campus of the Medical College of Georgia, to establish a health equity collaborative, aimed at studying chronic conditions and identifying interventions to improve health outcomes in low-income communities.
Albany Community Together, meanwhile, will operate a commercial kitchen, along with a business incubator to train new and small business owners.
"We know many locally owned restaurants in Albany went belly-up during COVID because they could not reach customers," Johnson said. "That's why The Table will offer food truck operators and other culinary vendors use of a large kitchen to help them re-open their businesses, without the added overhead expense of running a brick-and-mortar establishment."
Sherrod and Johnson said the sources for more than half of the $16 million needed to cover renovation costs have been identified, and without divulging the institutions by name, the partners said they are confident the project's merits will yield the needed funding.
In addition to Truist's $1 million gift, Congressman Sanford Bishop helped secure $2 million for the project from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said Sherrod, who added she's optimistic about securing another $6 million in new market tax credits.
