Georgia Legal Food Frenzy logo Georgia Legal Food Frenzy logo. (Courtesy photo)

Monday morning, Attorney General Chris Carr posted a Facebook video urging the Georgia legal community to be "the cavalry" to the state's besieged food banks, but he got a stampede instead.

Lawyers judges, legal professionals and other organizations had donated more than $119,000 by 4 p.m. on the first day of the two-week Legal Food Frenzy. That is more than one-fourth of the total cash raised in all of last year's event—but this year is far different than last year.

As Carr noted in his video, in a "normal" year, about 16% of Georgians are food insecure, meaning they do not know how they will get their next meal. But almost one million Georgians have lost their jobs since workers and consumers have stayed home to slow the spread of the COVID-19 disease that has killed 733 people in the state among about 40,000 around the U.S.

The result, a food bank official said last week, was a 40% increase in distribution by food banks, with some mobile units running out of food while people were still in line.

Food banks can turn $1 into four meals, so officials have emphasized that any-sized donation is important.

Frenzy awards are given to teams based on size and other factors, but the leaders for overall fundraising Monday afternoon were: Georgia Tech Office of the General Counsel, $18,000.50; Office of the Attorney General, $4,836; Troutman Sanders$4,539; King & Spalding, $4,475.50; The Cochran Firm Atlanta, $4,312; Alston & Bird, $3,871; Mercer Law School, $3,274.56; Parker Hudson Rainer & Dobbs; $3,015; Weltner Family Law Inn of Court, $2,992.50; and the Supreme Court of Georgia and Georgia Court of Appeals$2,868.75.

"The Georgia legal community stepped up in a big way on our first day," Carr said Monday afternoon. "But we are simply at the beginning of this two-week competition. There is so much more that we as lawyers can do for those who are food insecure."

Along with Carr's office, the State Bar's Young Lawyers Division and the Georgia Food Bank Association sponsor the Frenzy.