Many people know harvest hope as the charitable organization where they can donate food to help feed the hungry in the local community. The mission for Harvest Hope is to acquire and distribute food for hungry people in twenty counties of South Carolina. However, as the end of the year approaches and the weather begins to get colder, Harvest Hope begins to see more and more people come knocking on their door needing assistance for food. Harvest Hope does not turn away anybody that asks for assistance. However as the economy is still in a slump, more people are in need of assistance from charities like Harvest Hope than ever before in recent history.
Harvest Hope is projecting record numbers of requests for assistance again this holiday season. According Skot Garrick, communications manager for Harvest Hope, they will be ready for the rush. “Last year we saw about 2,200 families coming to us the three day week of Thanksgiving. Looking at current projects, we expect that number to exceed 3,500 families,” says Garrick. That is an over 50% increase from last year with the likely potential of more families. However there are multiple people being fed in each family. Therefore, the forecasted number of people is expected to be upwards of about five or six thousand people to depend on assistance from Harvest Hope for their Thanksgiving meal. That is only people in the Columbia area, and does not include people in the other eighteen counties in South Carolina that Harvest Hope serves.
With the rise in people coming Harvest Hope has found many are coming to them asking for assistance for the first time. Garrick said that in the month of October about 15% of the people that requested assistance reported that this was their first time in asking for assistance. It is hard to really nail down what might be the cause of this since the economic recession has been going on for the past few years. Garrick credits it to people having to spend the little money and resources they have on other expenses. He says, “We’re seeing more and more working and middle class people who probably never thought they would ever have to ask for assistance. In addition to everything else going on in their lives, they are worried about being thrown out of their homes or their apartments, putting gas in their car, finding another job, paying for clothes for their kids, losing their auto insurance. Then they realize they do not have enough money for food either.” All of these factors point to the fact that people have exhausted all of their resources that they have been able to rely on for the past several months. Garrick continued on to say, “Once they make the decision that they are going to have to ask for help then they have to figure out who is out there that can help us. Fortunately, most people in the Midlands know about Harvest Hope and will give us a call and find out what we do and how we do it.”
With the record numbers that Harvest Hope is experiencing, they have to do more food drives and have more community partners than before. They are depending more on community partners to help Harvest Hope meet their demand. Garrick said, “Just this month alone we have had two new partners with ABC Columbia stepping up to help us do food drives. Midas Mufflers has stepped up with sponsorship to collect donated money and canned goods. Equally, Little Caesars is working with ABC Columbia and they will be collecting funds and goods as well.” In addition to these new community partners in media sponsorship Harvest Hope also has other local businesses committing to help. “The Blue Marlin in the Vista, this is the first time we have partnered with them. They are allowing diners to make a donation to Harvest Hope as they pay their tab. We have so many other partners to thank, but these mentioned are new for us.”
Another one of Harvest Hope’s major partners is WACH Fox. “They do Share Your Holiday,” says Garrick, “which is going to be an all day food drive on November 30th from 6am to 7:30pm at First Baptist Church Columbia. That is our largest drive of the year where we collect the most funds and the most food in a one-day period. It certainly helps us launch into the busy December period with a lot of food.” Garrick continues to say people can drop by all day and drop off food and donations. This will help Harvest Hope re-stock their warehouse and distribute the food to the hungry people in the area. However, there are also other ways people can donate. Garrick says the easiest way to donate is online. “We have several different ways you can donate. There is a great resource on our website, www.harvesthope.org, that is called the virtual food drive. You can go in and basically click and drag a case of different types of food in a grocery cart. It tallies it up and you can checkout at the donation level that you are comfortable with. That money will go to us as a donation.” Of course you can give a straight donation on their website too. As Harvest Hope gears up for their holiday season, they ask people to always consider making a donation to them whether monetary or with goods. Ninety-eight cents of every dollar they take in goes towards providing for the needy. They want everyone in the community, including the needy, to be able to enjoy a meal this holiday season.
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