By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Second Harvests volunteer week is helping give volunteers more opportunities to help out those who are food insecure.
Second Harvest Volunteer Coordinator Andrew Foster says Second Harvest serves 19 counties, with 15 in Missouri and 4 in Kansas, serving 30,000 pounds of food a day.
Foster says Second Harvest provides many different nonperishable food items, but it also serves some fresh produce.
"We understand as families are struggling financially, if they are living on a fixed income and they are at the grocery store right now as food prices and costs have increased so dramatically," Foster tells KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr. "If they're living on that tight income, most often they're skipping fresh fruits and veggies because they're just so expensive."
Foster says the produce is donated by stores, or even at times, from individuals.
With more food being demanded in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, Second Harvests volunteer week is helping give volunteers more opportunities to help.
Second Harvest is part of the Feeding America Food Bank and operates two mobile pantries, as well as at least one food pantry in each county.
Foster says Second Harvest relies on its volunteers to help with the Fill-the-van food drives and campus cupboards at schools. Second Harvest also helps run the summer food programs while school is out.
"So, we have what we call 'No Hunger Summer' where we provide sack lunches Monday through Friday most of the weeks through the summer, and kids across the region receive a free nutritious sack lunch," Foster says. "And it takes literally hundreds of volunteers to facilitate that programming."
Second Harvest spokesperson Mackenzie Osborn says she started out as a Second Harvest volunteer, helping with its summer lunch program.
"A lot of the other things you don't get to see the direct impact, but when I started pre-COVID, the kids would have to sit there, and they would tell you how thankful they were as they were eating, and how they may not have had any lunch that day if we had not brought them any food," Osborn says.
This is Volunteer Week of Caring with extra volunteer opportunities for individuals and groups.