Warner Robins couple assembles hundreds of packs for homeless population ahead of winter weather

When the first whispers of cold arrive in Middle Georgia, Larry and Judy Cornwell’s Warner Robins home becomes a flurry of activity.

They bring in friends, family Bible study classmates and neighborhood kids and get to work at tables covered with blankets, gloves, hats and sacks. Together, the Cornwells and their assembled crew spend hours creating cold weather kits that go to hundreds of people experiencing homelessness in Macon each winter.

“Cold weather kits are something that provides those in need with warmth and some encouragement that someone cares and Jesus loves them,” Larry Cornwell said.

The kits go to Middle Georgia churches and charities and provide essential supplies to protect vulnerable people from the cold. The Cornwells said it’s a labor of love that allows them to show humility and give back to their community.

An essential service

The Cornwells assemble about 200 kits each year. They give the kits to Mulberry Street United Methodist Church, which distributes them to people experiencing homelessness through its ministry and outreach services.

Each pack includes a blanket, pairs of socks and gloves, a hat, a copy of the Bible, a note of encouragement from the Cornwells and a cloth sack to carry it all in.

Robin Frischkorn, director of operations at Macon Outreach at Mulberry United Methodist Church, said the Cornwells’ packs provide essential items to people experiencing homelessness that shelters, churches and nonprofits organizations are always in need of during the holidays.

“(The packs) are helping their basic comfort needs,” Frischkorn said.

In total, all 200 packs cost the Cornwells about $3,700 a year. While they do receive some donations, the couple primarily funds it themselves.

Larry Cornwell said he begins placing orders a year in advance. Waiting until it gets cold to order supplies for the packs may mean that stores don’t have enough items in stock and may cause delays in assembling and distributing the packs.

“You can’t wait until October to order them or else you won’t be able to get all the stuff,” Judy Cornwell said.

When it’s time to put everything together, the Cornwells gather volunteers from among their friends, family, fellow churchgoers and kids and teens who live nearby. Larry Cornwell described the process as an “assembly line,” with volunteers passing bags among tables filled with each item.

Frischkorn and Larry Cornwell said people experiencing homelessness often don’t have coats, gloves and other necessary items to protect themselves.

Two men experiencing homelessness froze to death on Christmas night in 2020. One man was found in an abandoned apartment, while the other had sought shelter under an I-75 overpass.

“We know that when a person’s cold, they can utilize these materials and get some relief,” Larry Cornwell said. “It kind of cemented (the need for the kits) in our minds when those people froze to death.”

A labor of love

After moving to Warner Robins in the early 2000s, the Cornwells were looking for a way to become more involved in their community.

Larry felt called by his Christian faith to create something tangible to help others, so the Cornwells began assembling relief kits for people experiencing homelessness.

These first kits contained a huge range of items including blankets, clothes, cooking utensils and gift cards. However, each kit cost around $100 to assemble, limiting the number of kits the Cornwells could put together to just 50.

“We were doing that and it was pretty costly,” Larry Cornwell said. “At that point in time, we didn’t really have enough to give out.”

To expand their reach, the Cornwells pivoted to hygiene kits. The hygiene kits were aimed at helping people in need stay clean and healthy while living on the street. The Cornwells assembled about 500 kits on a quarterly basis but noticed many other churches and nonprofits already distributed them.

After years of assembling hygiene kits, Larry Cornwell said he noticed many people experiencing homelessness lacked essential items to survive cold weather. The Cornwells turned to cold weather kits in 2013 in hopes of addressing the problem.

The Cornwells assembled 400 kits a year and donated them to Harvest Church in Warner Robins. When Larry retired, the number of kits went to 200.

“You just have to do what you can,” Larry Cornwell said. “If I could build 5,000 kits, I would build 5,000.”

They began donating the kits to Mulberry United Methodist Church when a friend who worked at Harvest Church got a new job there. Larry Cornwell said that in addition to continuing to work with someone who knew them, he liked that Mulberry United Methodist was in downtown Macon and worked directly with people experiencing homelessness.

Since then, their kits have been staples in Mulberry’s ministry. Dozens of boxes stuffed with kits take up entire rooms of the church’s ministry offices, and hundreds of people rely on them for essential items.

The Cornwells said they hope the kits can provide relief from brutal weather and hope for those going through difficult times.

“People need to know, even though they might be homeless or needy, that there’s people who care,” Larry Cornwell said. “I can’t just sit here and say, ‘Well, that’s their problem, too bad for them.’”