Agency Spotlight: The Marcus-Sharon-Gunter Foundation (MSG)
Beginning as a disability coalition in 1999, the Marcus-Sharon-Gunter Foundation (MSG) emerged in 2011 to focus on feeding the hungry in their community. MSG serves a wide spectrum of Forsyth County’s population; including children, disabled people and senior citizens, among many others. Each third Saturday of every month you’ll find the volunteers delivering scheduled distributions and sometimes filling the sporadic emergency requests from other partner agencies. As a non-profit, monetary funds can be tight but another challenge is facing the decline of volunteer hours during certain seasons. However, MSG believes that everyone needs some type of assistance at some point in life and that drives volunteers to support their mission.
The members and volunteers of MSG have connected with the citizens they’re helping by forming strong bonds and overcoming the obstacles of perception. The snowstorm of 2014 helped build familiarity and trust between the volunteers and hungry families. They express that receiving food from the GMFB was an essential part of getting food to the families in need during that chaotic time. MSG considers their partnership with GMFB to be the reason they can offer thousands of pounds of food to hundreds of individuals each month and keep their program consistent. They say they share “every thank you, handshake and word of appreciation” with GMFB.