Best ever: $160K gift helps make 2021 a record year for Marion's Bring the Harvest Home

Canned vegetables, pastas, condiments, toothbrushes, diapers and other goods were piled high in boxes on Friday at the culmination of Marion County’s 10th Bring the Harvest Home drive for local food pantries on the Ocala Downtown Square.

Marion County departments, businesses and residents rallied to collect food and toiletries for families in need, and donation recipients received an extra boost this year from local philanthropists Stan and Martha Hanson, who contributed $160,000 to four Marion County nonprofits.

"Especially this year, with everything that’s going on with inflation, people are having a hard time just meeting the needs. If you think about how much gas prices have gone up, food prices have gone up, the cost of living has gone up,” County Commissioner Kathy Bryant, who spearheads the event, told the Star-Banner.

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Bryant set a goal of collecting 20,000 pounds of food and other items during the drive and said this year will be the most successful since its start in 2011 because of the Hansons’ donation.

As of Friday afternoon, physical donations totaled 20,976 pounds before factoring how much food can be purchased with additional monetary donations. Last year, physical and monetary donations combined for around 17,000 pounds.

“This year, it’s ever more important because we have people that will be making choices on food versus possibly Christmas and presents, and this will help bridge that gap for a lot of those people,” she said. “Then you just have people that they’re having a hard time keeping food on the shelf because of the rising cost of everything.”

Ocala, Marion County collaborate

In the weeks prior to the event, government departments from Marion County and the City of Ocala collected a variety of goods deemed most in need during the holiday season, including dry foods, canned meats, canned vegetables and fruit, baby items and toiletries like soap, deodorant, toothpaste and toilet paper.

Donations were collected at over 70 county locations, including fire stations, public libraries, solid waste recycling centers, sheriff’s offices, tax collector’s office branches and the Ocala Police Department.

“The clerk’s office definitely enjoys being part of this each year,” Clerk of Courts Greg Harrell said after dropping off donations. “It’s just a great opportunity for the city, the county to rally together and help those in need, especially as we all come out of COVID.”

City Councilman-elect Jim Hilty also said the event instills more community spirit, which makes for a better community.

After dropping off donations downtown, items were weighed and distributed among Brother’s Keeper, Interfaith Emergency Services and Salvation Army.

“This time of year, we just have such an increase in people needing for a couple of reasons,” Interfaith CEO Karla Greenway said. “Utility bills go up because people are starting to use their heaters, and then also for some families in order to be able to buy gifts for their kids, they have to make adjustments in the budget.”

'One of our biggest blessings'

The Hansons’ donation was distributed by the Community Foundation, an organization that connects donors and nonprofits, on Friday. It was divided into $40,000 checks for the three food drive recipients and His Compassion, a food bank directly serving over 400 families in Marion County twice a week in addition to distributing food to over 60 local agencies.

Stan Hanson told the Star-Banner on Thursday he had spoken to Bryant last week about the food banks’ needs.

“They seem to be doing good on food supply, but their operating budgets are taking a hit,” he said. “(His Compassion) didn’t even have enough money to pay their propane bill, so they were having trouble using the kitchen and stuff like that.”

The Hansons were also inspired to help His Compassion after learning that the food bank didn’t have turkeys to give out for Thanksgiving. He noted the high food costs shoppers are experiencing lately, which has been linked to national supply chain issues.

Joy Guydan, director of resources and development for His Compassion, called the $40,000 donation “one of our biggest blessings that we have had in many years.”

“We haven’t really been able to sit down and say what exactly we’re going to do with it, but we’ve got a lot of things that we’d like to do with it: making things better and safer for our clients, making things better and safer for our volunteers, repairing things,” she said.

His Compassion has distributed nearly 20 million pounds of food in Marion County this year. Guydan says the group was literally counting pennies to pay the bills the day before the donation came, so it will help with a variety of operational expenses like purchasing racks and freezers.

“My only designation was to use it to support those groups in Bring Home the Harvest, which are three of the key groups that do the food programs (in Ocala),” Hanson said, in addition to His Compassion.

Community helping community

Greenway said the money will help Interfaith purchase food when food drives don’t yield enough, as well as keep its trucks on the road to pick up from grocery stores.

“It costs money to run those trucks and pay drivers, so all of that helps us keep going through the year,” she said. “You have to have a refrigerated truck. You have to have a driver and gas and all that.”

Hanson and his wife have lived in Ocala for over 25 years. While the donation is a personal contribution from the couple, they’ve also given to many causes through the Adam Hanson Better Communities Foundation in honor of their son, who died in a motorcycle accident in 2006.

“My wife and I remain committed to helping the community through the two ways that we’ve been doing it, and we’ll continue to look for opportunities to do that,” Hanson said, noting they also support causes in his hometown of Mount Sterling, Ohio, and Martha’s hometown of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

“What’s great about this food drive is that this is our community helping those in need in our community, and everything that’s donated here stays local,” Bryant said, also commending local emergency services personnel and other community members who volunteered at the event.

Contact reporter Danielle Johnson at djohnson@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Marion County food banks 'Bring the Harvest Home' with big donations