By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Second Harvest Community Food Bank Chief Executive Officer, Chad Higdon, will have a national voice in advocating for food banks across the country.
Higdon has been elected Vice Chair of Feeding America’s Policy Engagement and Advocacy Committee.
Higdon says Feeding America represents a diverse group with wide-ranging opinions on how best to approach hunger programs.
“We really do represent a lot of different parts of the country and there are committee members from Arizona and Alaska and Florida and, really, all over the place,” Higdon tells St. Joseph Post. “So, just to bring our voices kind of together and to help make sure that we all are on the same page and understand that we can’t always please everybody, but everybody has a voice and we are going to make sure that it’s heard and really ultimately do what we feel is best to help serve families in need.”
Higdon says that voice is needed now more than ever as many families that haven’t struggled with buying food find themselves in need, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Higdon says in his new role, he will help shape Feeding America strategy and will speak to lawmakers in Washington about the needs facing Americans.
“There are a lot of families that are really struggling right now and the work of the USDA to push additional food through our network has been very helpful and use of National Guard support has been extremely helpful,” according to Higdon. “So, we really do rely on the public entities to help us with our work and make sure at the end of the day everybody has food on the table.”
A Higdon says the USDA Emergency Food Assistance Program has been vital in getting food to people in need, especially during the economic disruption of the coronavirus pandemic.
As food pantries respond during the pandemic, their efforts serve as the best advertising charities such as Second Harvest can have, Higdon says.
“When you look at the national news stories, it really highlighted the lines of cars going through mobile distributions. It really gave us an opportunity for our voice to be heard and show what we can do and the impact that we can have.”