America's Second Harvest Provides More Than 16 Million Pounds of Food

[paineinthearse]

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=53047

America's Second Harvest Provides More Than 16 Million Pounds of Food to Katrina Victims

9/9/2005 5:03:00 PM

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To: National Desk, Photo Editor

Contact: Ross Fraser of America's Second Harvest, 312-263-2303 (127) or 312-307-8470 (cell)

CHICAGO, Sept. 9 /U.S. Newswire/ -- In the 12 days since Hurricane Katrina touched down, America's Second Harvest - The Nation's Food Bank Network has obtained and distributed more than 16 million pounds of food, water and essential grocery supplies to the victims. As of today, the Network has secured and dispatched to the affected areas 487 trucks carrying 16.5 million pounds of supplies - equating to 12.9 million meals. Dozens upon dozens more truckloads will be dispatched in the days ahead.

The Network secures these supplies and then moves them to local food banks that pack 25 pound relief boxes to go to the more than 200 emergency shelters in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and the surrounding states where hundreds of thousands of evacuees are moving. Stretched end to end, these food and supply boxes sent by the America's Second Harvest Network would span 250 miles, or the distance between New York City and Washington D.C.

"We are grateful for the tremendous outpouring of support from all our corporate partners and individual donors who have donated the funds and products necessary to provide immediate disaster relief," said Robert Forney, president and CEO of America's Second Harvest. "But the work has just begun and we'll need continued support to keep these efforts going."

More than 150 of the Network's agencies located across Louisiana and Mississippi have been impacted by the storm. As such, the Network has deployed teams to the hardest hit areas to aid in relief and recovery, opening three temporary warehouses and re-establishing The Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana in a vacant Wal-Mart warehouse in Baker, Louisiana, to help store and move the food.

The vital food supplies being dispatched are coming from four major sources: (1) major corporate in-kind donations, i.e. truckloads of portable food, (2) food bank inventories that do not impact their own community, (3) purchased groceries through individual and corporate financial donations and (4) USDA commodities.

Network food banks, pantries and soup kitchens across the country have shipped emergency supplies from their own inventories, and hundreds of volunteers have been activated in local communities to move food to where it is needed most.

Millions more pounds of food and water are going to be needed to maintain long-term relief and recovery efforts as America's Second Harvest prepares to be on the ground for the duration. "America's Second Harvest won't leave until everyone is fed. It is what we do every day in every part of the country at the thousands of food banks, pantries and soup kitchens we serve," said Forney.

Donations can be made to America's Second Harvest by calling [phone] or online at http://www.secondharvest.org.

100 percent of donations collected for Hurricane Katrina will be directly used to support disaster relief and recovery activities and assist our food banks in providing food to the people who need it the most.

America's Second Harvest -- The Nation's Food Bank Network is the nation's largest charitable hunger-relief organization with a Network of more than 200 regional member food banks and food - rescue programs serving all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The America's Second Harvest Network secures and distributes nearly two billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually. The America's Second Harvest Network supports approximately 50,000 local charitable agencies operating more than 94,000 programs including food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, after-school programs, and Kids Cafes. Last year, the America's Second Harvest Network provided food assistance to more than 23 million low-income hungry people in the United States, including more than nine million children and nearly three million seniors. For more on America's Second Harvest, please visit http://www.secondharvest.org.

PHOTO EDITORS: A high-resolution, publication-ready photograph is available for free editorial use at:



An archive of this and more than 1,000 news photos is available at: http://www.wirepix.com/newsphotos.

http://www.usnewswire.com/

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[serryjw]

1. That is where my money is going along with the ASPCA

You can live w/o a roof over your head, but you can't live w/o food.

[Skittles]

2. My company matched donations to them

that is who I donated to; I will be making more donations to them

[Skwmom]

5. If I were you, I read this article first.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050818/news_1n18foodbank.html

[salin]

7. very interesting article

thanks for posting it here.

[Skwmom]

11. I find it ironic that "Second Harvest" being listed as one of the

Katrina charities will most likely help it improve it's C-minus rating.

In April, the American Institute of Philanthropy, a charity watchdog group, downgraded Second Harvest from a B-plus to a C-plus because it spends too much on fundraising and too little on services.

"Their cash spending went down from 75 to 62 percent, and the cost to raise money went up from 22 to 36 percent," institute President Daniel Borochoff said of Second Harvest. "Hopefully, they'll improve."


What is with the ratings by other the organizations? Now we can't even trust charitable groups rating other charities?

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050818/news_1n18foodbank.html

[JerseygirlCT]

13. Damn

We just sent a check their way. That's terrible to hear!

[CountAllVotes]

14. Mercy Corps. www.mercycorps.org

I contribued some money to this organization - $1 will buy almost $30 in food. I received this in the email for my donation. Maybe this is a better option perhaps?

******

Dear xxx,

Thank you for your gift to Mercy Corps via our Web site - the fastest and most efficient way to give. Your donation will provide help and hope to suffering people around the world.

Mercy Corps provides emergency relief and long-term development opportunities to more than 6 million people in 35 countries. We invite you to visit our website regularly for up-to-date information about these programs. You will see how your gift is making a difference to children and families in need.

Make your gift go twice as far -- ask your employer about matching gifts. Click here for more information:

http://www.mercycorps.org/items/2307/

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at 1.800.292.3355 ext. 250 or at [e-mail].

Thank you again for your generous gift.

Sincerely,
Dan O'Neill
President and Co-Founder

Donation Receipt

Amount: xxx
Designation: Hurricane Katrina Relief

Total One-time Contribution: xxx
Donation ID: xxx

P.S. Another receipt for your tax-deductible gift will be mailed to you soon within a few weeks.

P.P.S. Help Mercy Corps do more. Tell your friends, spread the word and get involved.
http://www.mercycorps.org/mail.php

[belle]

20. I just donated to Mercy, thanks

[CC]

3. They may but they

do not do it for free. After the hurricanes last year in FL they charged food banks for the food they got from donations. That is how they work. The collect food then distribute it to Food Banks willing to sign over their non-profit status. They do sell it way below retail, but sell it just the same. They say it covers their cost. Go read their web site very carefully. You will notice that they never say they actually provide food to people, but to food banks. After some local charities in Orlando complained about being charged for food and having to sign over their non profit papers they have tried to run them out of "business". Their sin, they got the supermarkets and stores to donate directly-skipping second harvest. Look into who controls Second Harvest. I was shocked after the news reports I saw and checked into them. Also I would say please go check , do not take my or anyone else's word for it. It does take some digging but is all available on the net.

[Skwmom]

4. I found this article.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050818/news_1n18foodbank.html

I'm disgusted. I've donated quite a bit to this charity.

[Tsiyu]

6. As someone who dealt with them for a nonprofit,

I can tell you that they provide very low-cost food to non-profits. Some prices are comparable to Sam's club, but there is plenty of food sold for a per-pound amount that is ridiculously low.

Our camp was also able to purchase medicines, health and beauty products and cleaning supplies at a very low price- sometimes 0.25 for a bottle of shampoo, as an example. The low prices made a huge difference in our non-profit's food and operating costs.

They also have helped us procure leftover food from food shows that would have been thrown away, they run a tight warehouse and program, and the facility in Nashville has a tremendous kitchen which I believe is used to teach the community about cooking and food safety.

It doesn't bother me that they make enough to cover expenses. But I have not actually seen their financial statements.

[paineinthearse]

8. .

:kick:

[Skwmom]

9. Why should some of their prices be comparable to Sam's Club?

To celebrate his birthday, my son and I bought food from Sam's Club to donate to Second Harvest. We didn't expect them to turn around and charge for food we had donated.

[meganmonkey]

18. IF you donated the food to a Second Harvest Food Bank,

they probably didn't charge anything for it. That food would most likely be distributed for free. Some Food Banks in the SH network have a standard 14 cents per pound charge for everything, to cover their costs for transportation and staff. HOWEVER - these charges are NEVER passed on to the individuals receiving the food - they are only charged to the agency who is distributing it. Food Banks generally don't do the direct service - they are sort of like a warehouse/wholesaler who distributes the food to area nonprofits who then get it to the individuals. These nonprofits can range from community centers with emergency pantry programs, shelters and soup kitchens, low-income day-care programs, low-income housing for the elderly, low-income adult foster care or other group homes....

But again, most donated food is distributed for free, whereas the food purchased through the food bank network is usually 14 cents a pound, and this is cost is passed on to the county food bank and then the non-profit who will distribute it. If vital things like peanut butter and tuna and pasta are not available through the food bank network at a given time, then it is often purchased in large quanitites at major discounts by several food banks working together. This is called "co-agency" food, and is generally sold to the agencies at the same cost the food banks had to pay for it (e.g. a full case of peanut butter for 8 or 9 dollars - extremely cheap).

It is unfortunate that they have to charge the agencies at all, but remember these food banks are non-profits who get most, if not all, of their funding through private donations.

Where I work, for example, we get about 6% of our funding through city, county, and state grants. We get a small amount of money from FEMA which we allocate to the agencies we serve who have no food budget, so their 'payments' are figurative, really. We are lucky where I live, it is a rather wealthy county, so we get a lot of money through individual donations, local businesses, and some grants from bigger nonprofits that are based here. So we don't charge at all for most of our food, about 75% of it is free. The rest has the nominal 14 cent/pound charge to the agencies, and occasionally we will supplement our inventory with co-agency food. If we didn't offer this, say, tuna fish at $10 per case, the agency would have to buy it from Sam's Club or whatever and pay more than that.

But again, the main thing is that we DO NOT allow our agencies to charge the recipients of the food. The food is provided free to low-income people, with no strings attached, and the agencies are not allowed to proselytize or require any sort of work to receive the food.

If you have any other questions about it, please ask me.

Peace!

on edit: If you donate to your local food bank directly, whether or not it is a second harvest affiliate, America's Second Harvest will get none of it. I recommend donating to your local food bank, or a food bank in the areas hit by the hurricane, or where folks from there have been relocated. And right now, Amer. Sec. Harv. is sending hundreds of trucks to the affected areas - this is the time when they really step up to the plate. NO ONE is being charged for the food they are distributing right now, it is coming from the inventory of other food banks (like mine - lots of our inventory is on hold right now waiting for the word from them that they need it) and it is coming from big corporate donations. If you donate to the Amer. Sec. Harv. Katrina fund - ALL THE MONEY IS GOING TO KATRINA - there should be no concern that it will just go into a general account or anything.

[Skwmom]

10. "You're either with them or you're the enemy." Who does this sound like?

"With Second Harvest, you're either with them or you're the enemy," said John Healey, who runs California Emergency Foodlink, a large, independent food bank in Sacramento. "But there are a lot of excellent charities feeding the poor around the country that are not members of Second Harvest."

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050818/news_1n18foodbank.html

[CC]

12. That mindset is a very big part of

why I won't donate to them. They have spent the last year trying very hard to shut down the charities that had the nerve to complain in Orlando. If I saw that they charged even 18 cents per pound for their food etc. I might of thought well ok they collected and not so bad. Might of given anyway. But they didn't do all the collecting and they certainly did not let the donating public know they were charging anything for the food they supplied. To me that is deceptive. It took a lot of digging last year to find out how it worked beyond a few charities words for it.

[Misskittycat]

15. Isn't Second Harvest Franklin Graham's group?

If so, there might be a reason to be concerned about the religious, proselytizing aspect of it.

Anyone know for sure who runs this group?

[Misskittycat]

21. I was wrong. Graham's group is Samaritan's Purse. Woops. n/t

[truthisfreedom]

16. so, does that amount to about 2 million pounds of packaging? seems like

there should be a plan for recycling in there somewhere.

[meganmonkey]

17. Something to keep in mind about this agency (from someone who knows first-

hand)...

There are many criticisms about this group, and what they do or do not accomplish. There are issues, and I will not deny that.

HOWEVER - when it comes to a situation like Katrina, a case of serious emergency relief, they step up - they get the shit done. They had trucks down there delivering food before FEMA had it's shoes on.

The other VERY important thing to remember is that a large percentage of Food Banks around the country are affiliates of Second Harvest, they sort of have a monopoly on it - there isn't much choice. When it comes to things like Health Dept certification, and getting USDA surplus food, and receiving portions of corporate donations, Second Harvest membership is essential.

But most of the work of the county/regional Food Banks is local, vital, and they do their own fundraising, the affiliation with Second Harvest is mostly in name and a small portion of support.

So what I am getting at is that RIGHT NOW, donating to Second Harvest's dedicated Katrina Fund (all the money WILL go to Katrina victims, no question, not like with the post 9/11 confusion like with the Red Cross who made so much money they didn't spend it all on 9/11 stuff and people got pissed)is a good idea. Their fund is dedicated to Katrina only.

Additionally, SUPPORT LOCAL FOOD BANKS!! Support the Greater New Orleans Food Bank, the others in LA, MS, FL, TX. These food banks are carrying a HUGE burden right now, and most charitable dollars are going to the big guys right now. So I will say it again:

SUPPORT COUNTY AND LOCAL FOOD BANKS!!!!

[meganmonkey]

19. See also my post #18 for more details about how this network functions

and feel free to ask me questions.

I'm in the thick of it, believe me :)