Golden Harvest Food Bank, Christ Central Ministries partner to open food pantry in New Ellenton

Jun. 16—Christ Central Ministries and Golden Harvest Food Bank partnered to open a new food pantry in New Ellenton in an effort to combat food scarcity in the area.

Priscilla Elliott, media and communications director for Golden Harvest Food Bank, said she hopes the partnership will get more resources to people in the New Ellenton area and surrounding areas.

Christ Central Ministries has mission stations across South Carolina that serve the needs of their communities. Deborah Creech, a pastor and the director of Christ Central Ministries in New Ellenton, said the mission station in New Ellenton is in the process of not only helping the hungry but also providing emergency shelter and already has a kids summer program.

"We support the community; we feed the community," Creech said. "The vision here gets bigger and bigger."

According to Elliott, Golden Harvest Food Bank — which has two main locations, one in Aiken and one in Augusta — has recently seen an uptick in the number of hungry people. She said she thinks this uptick is due to inflation and the price of food increasing.

"This is a solvable problem. We just have to figure out how to collectively come together to solve it," Elliott said.

Elliott said many of the cheaper food options at dollar stores are high in sugar and are often highly processed foods. To combat this, one of the goals of Golden Harvest Food Bank is to not only make sure hungry people are fed, but also ensure that food options are healthy and nutritious.

"The goal of what we're doing is to try to get more healthy foods out into the community so people become less dependent on those unhealthy foods," Elliott said. "We're trying to just provide them with that healthy option."

The Christ Central New Ellenton location is open for food distributions from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every second Wednesday and every third Saturday.