Food bank raises awareness of hunger in Springfield
Sep. 2—The Second Harvest Food Bank distributes 6 million pounds of food a year to dozens of nonprofit member agencies, but on Friday at its Springfield headquarters, it focused its effort on the families who came directly to see them.
Second Harvest observed National Food Bank Day in conjunction with its weekly Friday distribution that draws lines hours early and serves 200 to 275 families normally.
The day is an annual event that "aims to raise awareness about the critical issue of hunger in our community and the vital role that food banks play in addressing this challenge," Jennifer Brunner, development director, said.
Second Harvest had 10 to 15 volunteers and 10 to 12 staff members helping to get food out to those in need Friday.
Brunner said National Food Bank Day falls during Hunger Action Month in September, with Hunger Action Day on Sept. 15.
"A lot of our efforts to shine a spotlight on hunger and the impact of hunger take place in September, along with a lot of other organizations," she said.
Brunner said other events include a harvest breakfast and community day. Banners will hang in downtown Springfield for Hunger Action Month; Kroger is asking customers to round up bill totals, and Skyline Chili in Springfield is giving a free coney dog to those who donate a nonperishable food item.
"We have the faces of hunger as well as hunger heroes in our community that support the food bank, which is great to shine a spotlight and awareness on it," she said. "These are opportunities to be involved in supporting and just being aware of the food insecurity and hunger in our community."
Second Harvest offers mobile distributions plus an on-site distribution each week from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Fridays.
Families start lining up around 8 a.m. and are given a number to go through the line with a shopping cart where volunteers help distribute food such as produce, frozen items, dairy items, proteins and more.
"We definitely appreciate the support from the community. It's definitely needed. We take a lot of pride in what we do, and it makes a big difference," Elliott Martin, direct service specialist, said.
If there is inclement or unusually hot weather, Second Harvest will do what an alley distribution for people to walk or drive-thru to get their food items.
During the distribution, community partners were there with resources, such as the Clark County Public Library's bookmobile and Rocking Horse Community Health Center.
"It's kind of a one-stop," Brunner said. "(It's so) if a neighbor needs to utilize those resources."
For the families that may speak other languages, Brunner said many resources are translated. They sometimes use mobile translators and resources, they have some people on staff that speak another language, and they are in the process of partnering and looking at translation services like ones they have worked with before such as the Community Health Foundation and others.
The alley distributions currently offered for people to walk up or drive thru from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday will change starting Oct. 1 to 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday.
"We started doing more here on site when the pandemic hit because our partner agencies like food pantries and churches that we work with didn't have the volunteers or capacity during the pandemic to do things," Brunner said. "We're just now going to slowly roll those back to create a model more like we did. We source and secure food, and then we get that out to our partners so they're right there in those pockets and neighborhoods that people can go to."
Second Harvest Food Bank of Champaign, Clark and Logan Counties is a member of Feeding America and the Ohio Association of Foodbanks. It serves the tri-county area by sourcing, collecting, storing and distributing six million pounds of food to 60 non-profit member agencies.
For more information about Second Harvest, visit theshfb.org.
