ML&J by the Numbers

According to the 2010 U.S. census, Jasper County, Georgia has a total population of 13,900, including 3,475 below age 18.  Within this population, 2,609 people live below the poverty level; of these, 1,046 are below age 18.  That means that 19% of the total Jasper County population and 30% of people under 18 live below poverty level.  Clearly, the ML&J Fund for Children and Youth serves a great need.

Each year ML&J gives feedback reports to the community, telling how many young people and families were helped by the back-to-school supply drive and Christmas donations.  ML&J does everything it can to stretch the available resources to help as many children and youth as possible.  Here are some figures from the ML&J Fund from Christmas 2012:

# Applied: 554

# Sponsored: 479 (including almost 20 foster children and about 50 homeless)

# Families assisted: 185

# New families assisted: 82

# People, churches, and civic groups who sponsored families: 38

# Families sponsored by these 38 people, churches, and civic groups: 73

(This does not include Monticello Baptist Church, who provided for 66 children)

Donations of almost $26,000 were collected.  This includes a $3,000 Operation Round Up grant from Central Georgia EMC, $802 from our local EMTs' Empty Boot Fund, and over $400 collected at Circle K.  Additional funds, not included in the $26,000, were spent by the 38 groups and individuals above who sponsored families on their own.