VALDOSTA, Ga. (AP) - Thousands of cars line up for its drive-through food distributions held each year.
Young children are fed every summer at its Kid’s Cafe.
Qualified partner agencies throughout the region have shopped for food at its facility for their programs.
It gave food to furloughed federal workers in 2019.
And now, feeding needs through the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis are being met partly through this food bank.
ON A MISSION
Second Harvest of South Georgia, a member of Feeding America, has been striving to combat hunger for more than two decades.
It gets food from the United States Department of Agriculture, grocery stores and manufacturers, said Eliza McCall, chief marketing officer.
Funding comes from the Georgia Nutrition Assistance Program, private contributions and grants, she said.
Second Harvest’s endeavors include Thanksgiving for Thousands and a mobile food pantry.
The nonprofit also has an annual event to benefit educators. Teachers Harvest is a giveaway held at Second Harvest’s warehouse to provide area teachers with supplies as they prepare for the new school year.
“Second Harvest of South Georgia gets its strength from its partnerships. We have worked hard over the last 20 years to cultivate relationships with all facets of the communities we serve – the faith community, community leaders, civic groups and businesses,” McCall said.
“Nobody can do this work alone. It takes lots of hands working in (and) across the area. By working together, we can all do more.”
NOURISHMENT THROUGH A PANDEMIC
When concerns of the coronavirus first arose in South Georgia in early March, schools were mandated to close. With schools out, some people wondered how children would be fed.
Second Harvest answered the call and began partnering with Valdosta City Schools to establish feeding sites to give kids meals around town.
The community group also held a food distribution at Valdosta High School to provide packaged food to residents.
To date, Second Harvest has donated 1.8 million pounds of food; a half-million more pounds donated compared to the organization’s usual giveaway total in March, McCall said.
More than 10,000 meals have been given to children in the City of Valdosta and Lowndes County, she said.
Residents in Lowndes have benefitted from almost 900,000 pounds of food, a 162% increase in distribution, McCall noted.
“This situation is unlike anything that we’ve dealt with in the past,” she said. “With a natural disaster like a hurricane, we have some idea as to the duration of the storm, and the damage is generally limited to a region. We don’t know when this crisis will end, and because it’s widespread, it has complicated our relief efforts.”
Staff said Second Harvest has to modify the way it serves the community. Frank Richards, chief executive officer, said the food bank has had to recreate itself in a two-week span.
McCall noted the need for food assistance has drastically increased, a boost that is due to families who were already “barely making ends meet” now being considered food insecure.
She said people with money may find food difficult to locate at this time.
“One marked difference between the response to this pandemic and what we’ve seen before is that we can’t call on the rest of the national food bank network for resources,” she said. “Traditionally, the rest of the network would be able to share resources with the affected region. Because this is so widespread, we can’t count on those shared resources now. The good news is that Second Harvest has the food on hand to serve the area for quite some time.”
Second Harvest monitored the pandemic and began planning.
When the pandemic hit South Georgia, McCall hinted it’s in the agency’s nature to step in and serve the community.
She said Second Harvest has the experience, capacity and inventory required to offer assistance to residents during the coronavirus pandemic.
“We were able to ramp up our efforts quickly to be able to provide aid almost immediately,” McCall said. “This is just an extension of what we do every day.”
Second Harvest usually operates with about 35 staff members and a rotating number of volunteers.
Recently, the agency has adjusted its volunteer work with social distancing in place for the county.
To help, volunteers from the Georgia State Defense Force of the Georgia National Guard arrived at the warehouse a week or two ago. Rep. Austin Scott also volunteered.
School nutrition workers who are unemployed at the moment due to school closures have been temporarily hired to assist with Second Harvest’s Kid’s Cafe, McCall said.
“Our staff is all working incredibly hard,” she said. “We do our best to distribute the workload, but it’s challenging under these circumstances.”
With hard work comes a reminder of why it’s essential.
During a distribution for children, McCall said a young girl who received a sack lunch was excited to have two pickles in her bag. She said a photo of the girl was printed and put on kitchen doors as a reminder.
“It can be difficult to try to wrap your head around the extent of the need,” McCall said. “We are trying to work by Secretary Sonny Perdue’s motto for USDA – ‘do right, feed everyone.’ We are doing our best to make sure that we are reaching as many as we can.”
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Second Harvest will reach even more thanks to a donation check from ERCO Worldwide, a Valdosta-based manufacturing company.
Jeff Fulp, plant manager for ERCO, presented McCall with a $1,000 check for Second Harvest
In recent weeks, ERCO wanted to help children in the community, Fulp said.
“We felt very confident in passing the funds on to Second Harvest because I think their reputation speaks for itself, and we knew that the money would be used in the proper way,” he said.
Fulp said as long as schools are closed, ERCO will provide assistance.
On behalf of the company, he challenges other area businesses to either match ERCO’s donation or provide more funding to Second Harvest.
“A thousand dollars is just a start, but a thousand dollars goes a lot further with the organization like the food bank,” he said.
McCall said $1,000 translates into 8,700 meals given $1 is the equivalent of 8.777 meals.
With Second Harvest partnering with neighboring counties, she said the donation will go far. She called it a blessing for Second Harvest.
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