Georgia Legal Food Frenzy logo

Law firms were busy Tuesday raising money for the Atlanta Community Food Bank as part of the statewide Legal Food Frenzy.

As of 3:30 p.m., Joe S. Habachy PC, the reigning overall fundraising champion, led the competition among Atlanta-area teams with $3,310. Alston & Bird was at $2,330; King & Spalding was at 2,275; and Arnall Golden Gregory was at $1,930.

An email from the Atlanta food bank to team leaders said that 80 teams were participating so far to support the organization, which serves a 29-county area in which 819,000 people are “food insecure,” meaning they do not know when they will eat next. (That population exceeds more than 11 capacity crowds at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.)

The competition had raised $33,333, or 11 percent of its $300,000 goal. The food bank says it can turn each $1 donation into $8 worth of groceries.

Monday's early leaders, Paul Hastings and McGuireWoods, were at $1,500 and $1,485, respectively. The Georgia Institute of Technology Office of Legal Affairs has $1,320, and Lueder, Larkin & Hunter has $1,261.

Rounding out the top teams were Troutman Sanders with $1,110; Parker Poe with $1,070; Jones Day with $950; Hunton Andrews Kurth with $895; United Parcel Service with $885; Team Chick-fil-A with $850; Chilivis Cochran Larkins & Bever with $795; and the Office of Attorney General, with $672; Fish & Richardson with $620; and, with $500 each, Freeman, Mathis & Gary, Polsinelli Atlanta and Page Perry.

The event occurs at this time of year so that food banks can fill their coffers for summer, when parents of the 60 percent of Georgia children who rely on free and reduced-cost meals at school have to look elsewhere for help.

Attorney General Chris Carr, who co-sponsors the event with the State Bar of Georgia's Young Lawyers Division and the Georgia Food Banks Association, has challenged lawyers to donate the cost of one billable hour to the campaign.

Teams can still get started by going to http://galegalfoodfrenzy.org/sign-up/. (Readers who want to support the food banks but aren't on a team are welcome to donate to the Daily Report's team.)