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Families in Loudon, Meigs, Morgan, and Roane counties are receiving food, school supplies, diapers, and other essential items through local schools, community events, and neighborhood blessing boxes, thanks to a decade-long outreach effort led by the Child Support Office in Tennessee’s 9th Judicial District.
While the office is responsible for enforcing child support orders, locating parents, and establishing paternity, staff members have spent the past ten years extending their work beyond the office to meet immediate needs in the communities they serve. Through monthly outreach initiatives and donation drives, employees collect and distribute essential items directly to families.
“Every month, I try to decide what’s going on in the community. Where we can help,” said 9th Judicial District Office Staff Specialist, Missi Scandlyn. “I shoot out emails to my coworkers to see who wants to participate. It’s not government funded. Everything we get, comes from me and my coworkers.”
Most recently, staff delivered donations to Oliver Springs Academy, Oakdale K-12, and Cherokee Middle School, and stocked a local blessing box in Kingston with food, diapers, and other supplies.
“It’s surprising how many schools actually have food pantries, so we will bring food supplies to the kids,” said Barbara Morgan, 9th Judicial District Child Support Office Administrator. “There are a lot of grandparents who have children, great grandparents… aunts or uncles who have custody, so you see the need in what they struggle with.”
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The Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference was created by the General Assembly in 1961 to provide for a more prompt and efficient administration of justice in the courts of the state. It is composed of the elected District Attorneys General from the state’s 32 judicial districts.