Food for the Fourth

The summer months are a challenging time for the Harvest Hope Food Bank. We are seeing more families in our 20 county service area facing the extremely difficult question of how to feed their children now that school is out. During the school year at-risk children are served reduced-price or free breakfast and lunches, giving their family’s breathing room of two meals a day per child. But summer is here and those school children are home. With July 4th coming up we’re not even half-way through summer, and that means there are plenty of hungry days ahead for many South Carolina children.

If you are wondering how many children we need to feed in our state, then consider some newly released information from Feeding America. A report released Thursday, July 1 shows ranks South Carolina as #9 in our nation for children at risk of hunger. In total, there are more than 257,000 children in our state who will most likely miss a meal today. And everyday.

In order to meet the incredible need to feed our children we have committed additional resources to feeding families and have depleted our supplies. We continue sending our Mobile Food Pantries into the most rural areas to give access to our neediest neighbor’s - right in their backyard. We continue delivering fresh produce every day to our partner agencies and we have been working to muster additional resources through our staff and volunteers who face this crisis every day as people come to us in critical need.

I am writing this blog today as we begin a long holiday weekend because I want everyone to think of the need. If you can spare a minute out of your busy day before you head into this weekend of celebration, please visit our website at www.harvesthope.org. We could use help gift right now to support a critical need. Your special gift of $5, $10, $20 or more would be a blessing to us as we try to meet the additional summer demand. The need right now is immediate and your immediate response will be valuable to so many. If everyone reading this will give up just the price of a lunch, between $7 to $10, and donate that to Harvest Hope, we can go a long way toward feeding the hungry children in our 20 county service area this Fourth of July and the following week.

By clicking on the “Donate Now” button on our homepage, you will be directed to our website’s convenient donation page. When entering your gift information, place a note in comment section indicating you read this special message and we will know to direct your gift to feeding our children this summer.

As you enjoy your 4th of July festivities…know that there more children will eat because you cared and answered our call…

Thank you and God Bless….


Denise Holland

CEO, Harvest Hope Food Bank

Where liberty dwells, there is my country. ~Benjamin Franklin

In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved. ~Franklin D. Roosevelt

Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better. ~Albert Camus