Second Harvest of South Georgia continues to grow

ALBANY — Second Harvest of South Georgia is continuing to grow and carry out its very simple, yet arduous mission of “feeding those in need.”

On Thursday, Chief Executive Officer Frank Richards addressed members of the Albany Rotary Club at the Doublegate Country Club on what Second Harvest has been able to accomplish recently.

Second Harvest has been able to service 30 counties through a variety of programs, and Richards said a major factor in accomplishing that was getting a facility that gave the organization space to accomplish what it set out to do.

The Albany facility, located at 3110 Clarke Ave., was able to install a cooler and freezer, which Richards said was badly needed. This helped the Kids Café program take off.

Kids Café is a program that provides kids with meals after school and during school breaks. During the school year, children receive a meal or snack as well as an hour of enrichment activities such as tutoring. As of today, the Second Harvest facilities in Albany and Valdosta prepare and deliver more than 45,000 meals and snacks monthly for kids in the area. Last year, the food bank served nearly 425,000 meals and snacks to children in South Georgia.

Richards said the improved facility has helped in being able to provide more services in the area.

“Those pieces put together, along with the overall revitalization and newer technology and a much nicer area to work, have, No. 1, made our cost efficiency much better,” he said. “That’s also gotten us to the point where agencies are able to come out on a much more regular basis.”

Randae Davis, director of development at Darton State College and a member of the board of directors for the Rotary Club, said Second Harvest is a vital part of ending hunger in Southwest Georgia. He told club members it is imperative to get the word out on what the food bank actually does.

“What Frank does and what Second Harvest does is very important, and I think a lot of people don’t realize the presence that they have here in Albany,” Davis said. “Do they understand the magnitude of the food that they provide? Not only hot meals to the kids, but food to the food pantries and the distribution of it. So I think it’s very important for the community to know and understand the importance of supporting Second Harvest.”

Davis said support from the community will help take the services to the next level and hopefully take care of the hunger problem for good.

“With as much as they’re doing, we still have an issue of hunger,” he said. “We still have an issue of children that go home every weekend without a hot meal. I think (Second Harvest) has got to continue to grow, it’s got to continue to build public support until we can get to the point where we can eradicate hunger.”