Food City donates $50K for Second Harvest Food Bank expansion

KINGSPORT, Tenn. (WJHL) — Food City donated $50,000 to Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee on Monday to support its volunteer center expansion project.

The project is an important initiative of the food bank’s plan to help meet the growing need for hunger relief in Northeast Tennessee, Second Harvest said in a press release.

The 9,360-square-foot building expansion will increase the center’s capacity to distribute food to those in need, as well as enhance the volunteer experience, Second Harvest said.

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“We’re so grateful to Food City and they’ve been our partner,” Executive Director of Second Harvest Food Bank Rhonda Chafin said. “We could not do the work that we do on a daily basis without Food City they donate from all their stores at store level to make sure that we have food to feed hungry families in Northeast Tennessee.”

The project is split up into two phases, both including expansions of volunteer areas, distribution areas, training spaces and office spaces.

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“We’ve raised about $1.1 million of our $2 million goal for the building expansion project,” Chafin said. “We’re working hard to encourage those in our community to support this project. This project is going to help us close the gap on hunger.”

Second Harvest started the second phase of the project on Jan. 30.

“Our goal by 2030 is to reduce food insecurity to 5% and that’s a big goal, that’s a bold goal and we are working hard to ensure that we can do that,” Chafin said.

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