Second Harvest Distributes Food on One Year Anniversary of First Mobile Food Pantry
Memorial Stadium was packed with cars on Saturday as hundreds of people were given food to put on their tables. America’s Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia partnered with McCraney Property Company to give out meals to about 1,000 families affected by the pandemic.
“I am totally overwhelmed,” said Nancy Ferreira, who attended the mobile food pantry.
Cars lined Memorial Stadium with their trunks open as volunteers from the National Guard, McCraney Property Company, America’s Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia and local fire departments filled them with boxes of food and drinks.
“It’s unbelievable the need that’s out in this community,” said Steve McCraney, President and CEO of McCraney Property Company.
Steve and Maria McCraney’s company develops warehouse properties in various markets, including here in Savannah. They say they sponsor food drives throughout the Southeast and helping the communities that help them is their mission.
“Based on a five-family household this is going to provide roughly 20,000 meals in this local community,” said McCraney.
Organizers say all of those who came will have enough food to last them at least a week. Today marks one year since America’s Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia held their first mobile food pantry, at this rate, in response to the pandemic.
“We recognize the need and we recognize that while a lot of people have gone back to work and the community is improving in that aspect, a lot of people have not been able to go back to work,” said Mary Jane Crouch, Executive Director of America’s Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia.
Crouch says they estimate now that one out of every four children are at risk of hunger in the community. She says people had spent the night just to get in line.
“You are literally handing someone a box of food that may not have eaten that night,” she said.
Folks were able to get quite the assortment, including chicken, juices, fruits and vegetables, beans and more.
“We’re just so grateful for the help that we’re getting from the county and from individual people and the Army. We are proud to be Chatham County residents,” said Ferreira.
Organizers say it’ll take a long time for people to get back to where they were, so they will continue to do food distributions like this one in the future.