Muscogee MSC: Community Events

Information and photos provided by Southwest Regional Administrator Tamara Barber

This summer, the Muscogee County Multi-Service Center (MSC) team showed their west Georgia spirit by participating in two community service events designed to benefit Columbus area young people and citizens in need. The ‘Mayor's Summer Reading Club’ provides young readers with food for creative thought and the ‘Feed the Valley’ collection program puts food on the table for many local disadvantaged families. 

With help from community volunteers, the Mayor’s Summer Reading Club operates as a no cost city-wide program that recommends book choices for reading to infants and children up to age 4, and for beginning readers to share with their families. The program uses convenient locations throughout the city like farmers’ markets, libraries, museums, and other Columbus institutions to manage “book club reads”.  Volunteers read books to children using research-based methods for story-telling and hosting enrichment events based on the stories.

The books come to life as children enjoy drama exercises, arts and crafts, and other hands-on activities designed to make language in the stories more meaningful to children. Muscogee MSC staff who volunteered with the Mayor's Summer Reading Club provided Columbus area kids with new books and read to them during a series of summer visits. 

The mission of the ‘Feed the Valley’ program is to gather foodstuffs and nutritional necessities to provide meals for the hungry in Columbus. The program was founded in 1982  based on the vision of several Columbus servant leaders who saw the community’s need for a centralized, consolidated food source for disadvantaged families and individuals. Feed the Valley incorporates compassion, dedication, urgency, inclusiveness and good stewardship into their mission. 

During their visit to the main Feed the Valley distribution warehouse, the Muscogee MSC volunteer team helped prepare food boxes for local citizens in need. And as part of their community service requirement, DJJ probationary youth also participated in the food collection process while under supervision of the Muscogee volunteer team.

The Department of Juvenile Justice expresses its appreciation to members of the Muscogee MSC who took time to help out their fellow citizens this summer.