Our 37th year as an organization is well under way! Second Harvest was established on July 25, 1983. Over the last 36 years, we have distributed 144,030,318 pounds of food. This is over 4,115 truckloads of food going into the eight counties we serve. I estimate that we will hit 150 million pounds this year!
We’ve been able to do this amazing amount of hunger relief because of you. If you have sent us a dollar, volunteered an hour of your time, or offered a service to assist us, then you have a reason to celebrate, too.
I stop and think that a 35-year old single mom, between jobs, who had to receive assistance from a food pantry one cold March in 1983 would now be 72 years old. She was able to keep her children from missing any meals because of people like you who support programs to take care of under-resourced neighbors who are still challenged with these decisions even today.
For the past five years, we have focused on relationship building as the backbone strategy of our approach to “shorten the line of need”. We continue to refine our processes to meet families where they are and develop the bonds of relationships that can truly change a person’s path to self-sufficiency.
I hope as we move toward our 40th year celebration, we continue to carve a legacy many can point back to as a major turning point in their life when we helped them identify the future they are now living.
Have a great March!
Tim