| Become a volunteer! |
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Harvest Hope could not accept and distribute the millions of pounds of food to the thousands of suffering and hungry members of our community without the help of volunteers at the Food Bank. We gladly accept help from individuals, families, churches, school (middle school or older) or civic groups. Please consider lending a hand by volunteering a few hours of you valuable time.
Click here to find a location near you
to get started.
For a list of current opportunities click here. | |
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Greetings!
To all of the friends and supporters of the Harvest Hope Food
Bank: Welcome to our new e-friendly newsletter! We hope you will enjoy reading
the different articles in this, our inaugural issue. From now on, you can keep
an eye on your inbox and expect regular updates on Harvest Hope news and events,
the latest SC economic and employment data, selected passages from my regular
blog, links to websites and information related to the work we do at Harvest
Hope, and more. We will do our best to make each edition newsworthy,
informative, enlightening and heartwarming. And maybe a little sad, because from
time to time we might include stories of the real people who come to us, and try
to give insight into the real lives of those who are forced to make the
difficult decision to come to us and ask for our (and your) help.
Best Wishes and Blessings to You and Yours,
Denise Holland
CEO - Harvest Hope Food Bank |
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Share Your Holiday |
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The Harvest Hope Food Bank was proud to partner with WACH Fox news and other generous and concerned Midland's business to hold the 11th annual Share Your Holiday Food Drive on Wednesday, December 2 from 5:30 am until almost 8:00 pm. Despite the cold gloomy weather and often driving rain, Harvest Hope and its partners took in 1.78 million pounds of food during the food drive, and a large amount of monetary donations. This exceeds last year's donation level, and will go a long way toward helping us feed the hungry through the holiday season.
Thank you to our great sponsors: SCE&G, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Palmetto GBS, Citadel Broadcasting and Food Lion. Thank you as well to companies like the Mungo Company and Wachovia Wells Fargo for making generous cash donations. Thank you to First Baptist Church for giving us such a wonderful central location to work from. And of course thank you to everyone who visited our food drop-off locations or drove up the day of the event and helped make this year's Share Your Holiday such a great charity event.
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A message from Denise Holland
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 If you have given to us recently, then I urge you to make your friends and family aware of the warmth and comfort you derived from knowing that you helped others in their time of need and despair. Let them know how much giving has meant to you as well as those who are suffering. At this time, I think it is important to talk about need in our community. Need that comes from so many of our neighbors who seek assistance in putting food on the table. This is something that many of us take absolutely for granted. Let me give you an example: the other morning I went to make a quick breakfast before coming to work, and I was little put out when I discovered that I was out of milk for my coffee and bread to make toast. The first thing I thought was: I don't have anything to make for breakfast. And then I realized I had eggs, I had cheese, and easily a half dozen other things to make for my breakfast. But for so many of our suffering and hungry neighbors, when they say they don't have anything to make for breakfast, they really mean they don't have ANYTHING. Not for themselves, not for their children and not for the others in their family. Not for breakfast...not for lunch...and not for dinner. The next time you walk into your kitchen, I want you to look around and see how much food you really have, and try to imagine not having anything in the refrigerator or pantry. Then try to imagine not having any idea where your next meal will come from. That's the reality for so many of our neighbors spread over the 20 counties that Harvest Hope serves. That's what I mean by need. Read more..
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Holiday Gift Catalog
This Holiday Season, give a gift to help feed hungry children, families and seniors in the community. Click here for Great Gift Ideas that are easy and available at a wide range of donation levels. To learn more click here.
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Increased Unempoyment Leads to Increased Hunger
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Formerly ranked as the state with the fifth highest unemployment rate, South Carolina is now tied with Nevada and California as the third highest ranking state according to information released late last week by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
South Carolina currently has an unemployment rate of 12.3 %, a 4.1% jump from its ranking of 8.2% last year. Our state has shed over 50,000 jobs over the last year, with many counties in Harvest Hope's service area showing levels of unemployment in excess of the national unemployment rate of 10%.
The average unemployment rate for the 20 counties served by Harvest Hope is 14.42%.
Many of the counties served by Harvest Hope contain the highest unemployment levels in the state.
According to figures by the SC Employment Security Commission, also released late last week, the following counties in our service area show these shocking levels of unemployment:
- Marion - 21.4%
- Chester - 21.2%
- Marlboro - 20.1%
- Orangeburg - 17.7%
- Dillon - 17.7%
- Clarendon - 16.7%
Harvest Hope distributes food throughout these counties by partnering agencies. 190,491 individuals were served food by Harvest Hope and its agencies in the listed five counties through the first eight months of 2009.
The Harvest Hope Food Bank operates Emergency Food Pantries in Richland and Lexington Counties, providing walk-up distribution centers in addition to serving as agency distribution hubs. Through November of 2009, Harvest Hope Food Bank, served in its Richland and Lexington Emergency Food Pantries:
a) 58,175 households, equaling
b) 189,026 individuals
This breaks down to:
a) 38,027 households, or 123,533 individuals in Richland County
b) 20,148 households, or 65,493 individuals in Lexington County
The downward spiral of unemployment in South Carolina directly translates into an increase in individuals and families thrown into conditions of economic disarray. Many find themselves slipping below the poverty line, leading to an increase for a need of Harvest Hope's hunger relief services. Over the last 26 months, Harvest Hope has seen increasing demands for service higher than we have ever experienced, with current demand for service more than 100% over same time last year.
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If you enjoyed our newsletter please pass it along to a friend.
Happy Holidays, Harvest Hope Food Bank |
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