At the beginning of March Harvest Hope took the unprecedented step of announcing we were facing a fiscal crisis and were launching a funding drive to help raise cash to pay off recent debt and shore up finances to prepare for the coming need. We announced through the media we needed to raise $2 million between now and the end of June, and as much of it as possible as soon as possible.


For more than four years now, the increase in need for our mission work of providing food to the hungry has not abated. From 2008 to 2010 we saw a 91% increase in our service to hungry families.

In the last six months, the number of families we have fed has increased by 42 percent over the same period a year earlier.

Our resources are stretched thin across the 20 counties we serve. Just operating our fleet of vehicles that deliver food throughout our region costs us $3,100 a day. Harvest Hope depends on its fleet of trucks to pick up and deliver food throughout our 20 county service area, and so this is an expense we have to afford, no matter how much gas increases.

Yet we are suffering from a steady decline in donations, especially the corporate and large gift donations that do so much to help with our operating costs. Now due to the steady increase in demand, the rise in operational costs and the decline in large donations we find ourselves in an economic crisis.

The $2 million goal is not an arbitrary figure pulled out of thin air, but a number arising from a combination of factors to include the accelerating increase in need, the rise in unavoidable expenses, the continuing decline in cash contributions and projections based on what we know will be an increase in need to feed hungry children during the summer of 2011.

These factors caused us to take a hard look at the reality of our operation and situation and to make the difficult decision to let the community know what we are facing. It was not an easy decision to make. And while we are still far from achieving the $2 million goal we set to help lift us out of our current economic crisis and prepare for the immediate future, I am happy to report that the initial reaction has been supportive and I have tentative hopes the community will continue to open their hearts and give to help us reach our goal.

We were helped by a generous matching campaign made by the Mungo Company, a long-time contributor and friend to Harvest Hope. They agreed to provide $150,000 if the community donates to a level that doubles that amount. I am pleased to announce we are close to achieving that amount. I want to thank everyone who responded to our cries for donations to help us make it this far. But there is a long way to go.

For the communities we serve, Harvest Hope is the institution that is too big to fail. We are the food safety net for almost half the state. Our 476 member agencies that feed the hungry in their communities – churches, private charities, others – depend on Harvest Hope too much. For 30 years we have worked with these organizations around the state to identify pockets of poverty and directly provide food to individuals and families in need. We cannot fail and we will not fail. Too many in our state depend on us.

We are NOT failing. We are not going away. We are getting the job done, despite the challenges before us. But for the first time, we have gone into a financial hole doing so, and we need your help to get out of it, and continue the mission.

The easiest way to help is to visit our website at www.harvesthope.org and click on the Donation button. You’ll go right to a convenient donation screen.

We have never asked for help of this nature before. Honestly, I never thought we would have to. But over the last few months we have accepted the inevitability of this. We need your help to reach our $2 million goal. It is not an impossible goal. Many are already responding. Help us make sure we can continue providing the safety net that so many need.

God Bless You for Your Compassion,

Denise Holland



One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. - Proverbs 11:24-25


A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor. - Proverbs 22:9

I want you to think for a minute about the senior citizens that you know or have known in your life and especially those who have made an impact on your life. Most of us have known at least one senior during the course of our lives who we think of with great fondness. Think about a favorite grandparent, aunt or uncle, friend of the family, church member or even co-worker who we have come to regard with admiration and affection.

Now think about that person going hungry. Think about that person consumed with worry about how to make ends meet on a fixed income and wondering where they will find the money to buy the groceries they need after paying all their other bills. Think of their desperation as they are forced to choose between paying for the medicine they need or buying food for their table, both of which they need to survive. And let’s not get started on the rent or mortgage.

According to the US Census Bureau, South Carolina is second in the nation for senior citizens who suffer from food insecurity, with 10% of its elderly population living in a constant state of anxiety over how to put food on their tables.  These are individuals who do not have access to healthy and nutritious food sources due to limited income, and/or inadequate transportation.  Since subsisting without consistent nourishing food increases many health risks such as malnutrition, diabetes or hypertension they become locked in a vicious cycle where their health concerns are perpetuated and their health costs continue to spiral, which impacts their ability to buy the food they need to stay healthy. 

The issue of seniors living in poverty and hunger is one we rarely see or hear much about in our country, but a recent episode of the new NBC show Harry’s Law choose to dramatically illustrate their plight with the story of an 87-year-old woman forced to commit armed robbery because she did not have the money to buy food. During the trial both the prosecuting attorney and the title character, lawyer Harriet “Harry” Korn who defended the accused senior, used current hunger and poverty statistics such as 25 million Americans are hungry everyday and 45 million live in poverty. In her summary defense, Harry talks about the shame of hunger and the desperation that seniors must feel after working their whole lives only to discover they cannot pay for their housing, medicine and food. She states in anger: “We live in the richest nation in the world yet one in seven Americans live in poverty.” I am grateful to the producers and writers of this show for dedicating an episode to an issue usually avoided in mainstream media.

We see the faces and hear the stories from hungry seniors when we provide senior boxes on the second Thursday of every month at our Emergency Food Pantry through our Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which is grant funded through the SC Department of Social Services. Pre-qualified seniors receive a box of food each month to help meet their nutritional needs. Last year, Harvest Hope provided 28,758 food boxes to qualified senior citizens in Fairfield, Greenville, Kershaw, Lexington, Orangeburg, Richland and Sumter counties.

Totes of Love is a new feeding program designed to meet the needs of low-income Senior citizens in the Pee Dee area.  It is a grant funded program working to improve the health of 25 low-income seniors by supplementing their diets with nutritious foods and providing nutrition education.  Harvest Hope Food Bank supplies the participating Chesterfield County site with food and tote bags each month.  The on-site coordinator sends home a food-filled tote bi-weekly to qualifying applicants who are at least 60 years of age and older who live in Chesterfield County, and whose income is at 130% of the poverty levels for the state. There is no cost to the participants, but the tote must be returned prior to the delivery day in order to be refilled. 

Please take a moment to reflect on the suffering of our elderly neighbors who are caught in the cycle of economic hardship, hunger and anxiety. Think about the seniors that are closest to you and have contributed so much to your well being. It is difficult to imagine our own grandparents or even parents suffering and worrying about the money for their next meal. Remember that this is the reality for 10% of senior citizens in our state.  Please help us continue our efforts to lessen the pain of hunger for the elderly in our community and designate a gift for our senior feeding programs. We can provide 250 meals for a senior citizen for less than $40, or  1,000 meals for a senior for less than $150. Give us a call at (803) 254-4432 or visit www.harvesthope.org to easily make a donation.

I know it is in your hearts to help those who have made a lifetime of providing love and encouragement to others. Thank you for your compassion.

With Warmest Regards and Thanks,

Denise Holland


“Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. -Leviticus 19:32

“The silver-haired head is a crown of glory.”  - Proverbs 16:31

With the winter months upon us, this tends to be a season where all household bills seem higher than at other times of the year. In our 2010 Hunger Study, we can easily see how a number of problems this time of year impact people who are already meeting tough times. Fifty-five percent of people interviewed report they have to make difficult decisions about paying rent or utilities or paying for food. Forty percent have to make difficult decisions about paying for medical expenses or paying for food.

Both of these choices add a higher impact on those who live on the edge financially, particularly during this time of the year. And while there are many organizations that help people with these particular problems, these issues directly impact the population we seek to provide food for with a heavy burden.  

The Food Research and Action Center released a study less than one month ago that shows South Carolina is second in the nation for families living in food hardship, which is defined as not having enough money to buy the food they need for themselves. Over the last year 24% of South Carolinian's reported they could not afford adequate food for their families. According to the US Census Report, South Carolina has a population of 4,625,384, which means that 1,110,092 people in our state cannot adequately or dependably provide food for themselves or feed their families. That’s right, over one million people live in a constant state of hunger and uncertainty.

We hear the stories everyday of people who either exist in a continued state of economic crisis, or discover how fragile their circumstances are when they are suddenly confronted with an unexpected financial burden. In December a woman in her forties came to us in distress due to a series of sudden unforeseen economic hardships. This mother of three, who works full-time as a flooring contractor, usually manages to provide for her family, pay her bills and maintain the upkeep on her small home in Gaston. Prior to December, she had come to us for food just twice over the last year, with each visit months apart. She had all of her monthly expenses covered and had even put a way a little extra money to afford a modest Christmas for her children. And then in the space of less than three weeks both of the family vehicles, one of which she depends on to haul materials as part of her contracting job, broke down and she found herself facing over $2,000 in repair bills. She could scrape together enough to repair the vehicles, but the cold weather had caused her utility bill to rise and she need over $400 to prevent her power being turned off. We helped her with food to last through the end of the month, and through an act of providence a generous donor heard about her circumstances and stepped up to pay her utility bill. The beginning of the year has brought an increase in contractor jobs and she is getting back on her feet again to earn the level of self-sufficiency that she works so hard to achieve.

As inspiring as her story is, there are many who are not so fortunate and whose stories are more tragic. With South Carolina’s unemployment at the seventh highest level in the nation, there are many who continue to look but cannot find work. They come to us for food. There are many who are willing to take any job that comes along, even if the hard work does not adequately maintain any semblance of a standard of living. They come to us for food. There are many seniors who face high medical expenses in addition to all the other expenses of this time of year and find they have to cut corners and sacrifice buying groceries. They come to us for food.

I would like to ask for everyone who finds themselves in the fortunate circumstance to consider donating to think about the generosity of the individual who helped the Gaston woman with her power bill. This man, who is already a regular contributor to Harvest Hope, discovered and benefited from the joy and warmth of giving, and knowing his gift meant a family did not have to go without power in the cold. If you find you have the means, open your heart do what you can to help us provide for those who find themselves on the wrong side of unfortunate and unforeseen financial hardships. Visit our online gift catalog at  https://harvesthope.feeding-hope.org/ or our donation page at http://www.harvesthope.org/donatenow.aspx and see how easy and rewarding it is to help out your struggling neighbors.

Best Wishes and Deepest Appreciation,

Denise Holland

Dear Friends of Harvest Hope Food Bank,

In the spirit of the season, I certainly wanted to say a heartfelt thank you for the many blessings you have shared with Harvest Hope Food Bank to assure that we have much needed resources to distribute food to those who are worried where their next meal will come from.  After our last email to you, we have had many responses to our requests for honorariums and memorials to let loved ones know they are thought of fondly and a gift has been made to help fight hunger-what I passionately feel is a critical need.  We thank you so very much!

Harvest Hope Food Bank relies greatly on the generosity and donations of so many to continue our mission of caring for hungry families across 20 counties of our state.  Especially as we close out 2010, resources collected now must help us continue into 2011. 

In this continued worried state of the economy, increases in service delivery are very high-more than 111% more families are coming to us than in 2009.  With this increased service delivery, naturally it costs more in operation funds to move food to those who need it. 

Sadly, since Thanksgiving we have seen a 13% reduction in the usual flow of donations we come to count on at this busy time of year.    I must share that the reduction is significant and impacts our service delivery to make sure we are getting enough food to those in need.  True to the economic conditions, the average gift per donor is about half of what it was last year. This is certainly frightening and at the same time I know we have to walk by faith not what we see.  We always must trust in the Lord that He will provide.

For many, the holiday season is almost over, but also for many, the hunger need will not go away. Families who face such critical needs will still need our compassion and help long after the holidays and certainly into the dead of winter.

New unemployment numbers came out just last week and they tell us why we are seeing such a strong need for our service. South Carolina is tied with Nevada as the state with the seventh highest percentage of unemployed. The unemployment rate across Harvest Hope’s 20 counties is 12.6%, which is a full two points higher than the state average and three points higher than the national average. Sixteen per cent of South Carolina’s population live below the poverty level, and that’s almost half a million people. Hunger is a new and unfamiliar factor for so many in South Carolina.  Harvest Hope lives with purpose to bring food to all hungry people and certainly this is not an individual effort but a collective one that includes YOU. Your gifts, your time, your prayer and your support tell others what we do.  You are significant to this fight and to the dream to make sure that no one goes hungry.

Being a collective ambassador in this fight is crucial.  Yes, financial gifts will and are always  needed, volunteers are needed, as well as in kind gifts that might be not needed by everyone but could be possibly be used by someone else.  Telling others about what Harvest Hope does and scheduling a powerful mission-telling HOPE tour really helps to get people’s attention about this work. You our donor, our volunteer, our supporter are the best message deliverer to invite others who respect what you support to take a tour.  Please take a moment to look at our website and see there are multiple ways to help through our gift catalog, honorariums, memorials, year end gifts, food drives and volunteering. 

As always, we are very grateful for your support and interest in the ongoing mission of Harvest Hope Food Bank. We know this is a tough economic time and many difficulties are brought on as the past three years have shown. However, as written in 2nd Corinthians 9:9: “They share freely and give generously to the poor. Their good deeds will be remembered forever.”  And to share the joy and peace of the season, we can know that through our collective work, we have “filled the hungry with good things.” Luke 1:53.

Best Wishes and Warmest Blessings of the Season to you and to your families,

Denise Holland 


To make a online donation click here.

In late September the US Census Bureau released information on American poverty levels prepared from the data collected for the 2010 census, including the latest findings on poverty in America. The data shows that South Carolina’s population has 11.20% living below the poverty level, compared to a national average of 9.6%.  Richland County’s poverty rate is exactly the same as the national average, but some counties like Darlington (22.3%) and Marion (23%) are over twice the national level.

For me the most startling numbers tell us how many children in South Carolina are living below the poverty level.  Almost 30% of children ages five or younger in our state live below the poverty level. Almost 22% of children ages five through seventeen in our state live below the poverty level. Every night in South Carolina, one out of every four children under the age of five goes to bed hungry.

For too many children in our state, the meals they are served during the school day are the most dependable and most nutritious they receive. They count on the breakfasts and lunches they sit down to eat in their school cafeterias. They look forward to going to school because they know they will get the food their parents are often find difficulty in providing. And equally, they worry what they will have to eat when they go home, and if they will go hungry over the weekend. To help meet their needs and ease their fears, Harvest Hope provides supplementary nutrition and meals to hungry children with three different programs: Kids Cafe, Backpack and Snack Sack programs.

These are after-school charitable meal programs for children ages six to eighteen who have been identified as being at risk of hunger. These programs provide meals to low-income children through a variety of community locations where children can safely congregate—such as Boys and Girls Clubs, churches, community centers and public schools. At our Kids Cafe locations, Harvest Hope delivers food to community partners who prepare hot meals and serve the children. The kids get more than just meals at these sites. It’s a nurturing and structured environment where they can participate in safe educational, recreational and social activities such as homework assistance, tutoring, and arts and crafts projects.

Kid’s Cafe sites operate after-school and so are closed over the weekend. To make sure that kids get a nutritional boost between Friday afternoon and the next Monday morning, Harvest Hope is fortunate to have many valuable partners across our 20 county service area. These community partners, many of whom are churches, coordinate with schools and assist in our 28 Backpack and fifteen Snack Sack sites to provide easy-to-prepare, kid-friendly meals that children take home on Fridays to supplement their nutritional needs through the weekend. In the past, Harvest Hope provided just schools in our service area with kid-friendly food and empty backpacks or snacksacks which the schools would then fill. Guidance counselors and teachers identify at-risk kids and discretely ensure they get their designated food to take home, and then collect the Backpacks when they return on Monday.

Just recently, Harvest Hope has been fortunate to find partnerships with a number of committed churches who are dedicated to helping us in our mission to feed hungry school children. Our pantry trucks deliver food on a monthly basis to these churches, who then use members of their congregations to fill Backpacks with the food and then deliver them on Thursdays or Fridays to our partnering schools, picking up the empty backpacks on the following Monday.

We are grateful for these local churches, some in rural, hard-to-reach areas, who have come to us and showed their commitment to helping get food to children in need. We want to expand these partnerships, and find more church partners who will include Harvest Hope’s Backpack program as part of their congregation’s mission work. If you think your congregation would like to find out more about working with us to reduce the number of children going to bed hungry every night, then call Erica Cheeks at (803) 254-4432 extension 1102 and let her tell you how we can work together.

If you would like to help us feed hungry children in South Carolina and ensure brighter tomorrows for so many of our young, would you consider making a donation right now through our website to help Harvest Hope continue providing these critical services? Just click here to visit our convenient Donations page: http://www.harvesthope.org/donatenow.aspx

Together we can continue to make a difference in the lives of children and help them grow to become the future stewards of grace, kindness and compassion.

Thank you,

 

Denise Holland

CEO, Harvest Hope Food Bank

Children are one third of our population and all of our future.  ~Select Panel for the Promotion of Child Health, 1981

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.  ~Frederick Douglass

Hunger is a reality that many of us do not realize exists in our daily or normal travels. Often, just outside of the neighborhoods and streets where we are accustomed to traveling there are large numbers of people who exist in a continuing state of crisis. Their personal crises are brought on by long-term unemployment, unmanageable housing and utility costs, fixed incomes that do not come close to covering all their expenses, health costs and other overwhelming factors.

If we take ourselves just a little off of our regular daily paths we can find those around us who live in that constant state of need and hunger. Maybe in your own neighborhood there are homes with “for sale” signs that have sat empty for many months, and there are some neighborhoods where it seems there are more empty homes than ones with families. If we go a little further out of our way to drive through rural areas in our state then we can see even greater signs of crises and need. There are many more houses empty and for sale and many more people who are not making it. Life presents additional challenges for those suffering from financial difficulties in South Carolina’s rural areas. Transportation is an enormous challenge and many do not have the means to take themselves or family members to the places where they can get help.

Convenient transportation is something most of us take for granted. We may complain about high gas prices and find ways to cut back on travel, but in the end if we feel the need or desire to go somewhere then we get in our cars and go. But many in our rural areas face a different reality. For them travelling just five or so miles can be a problem. For the few who own reliable cars high gas prices become a pivotal point in determining their access to meals.

To meet the needs of those in rural areas Harvest Hope works with over 400 agency partners throughout our 20 county service area. Many of these agencies take the food they pick up from us out to these impacted rural communities and provide soup kitchens or boxed meal sites at churches and other community centers. The majority of Harvest Hope’s food is actually distributed to the needy by our agency partners at these sites. Most of these agency partners are operated by faith-based organizations committed to helping their hungry neighbors.

There are direct and indirect benefits from our association with agency partners. The obvious direct effect is providing food to those who need it where they need it. The agencies operate in areas where poverty can easily be identified. Poverty is not hidden or out of the way like it is for many of us. It is present and all around them, and their compassion and devotion compels them to help where help is needed. These agencies provide food at feeding sites often run by volunteers and dedicated staffers who are in touch with the community and see the faces of hunger on a regular basis.

The indirect benefits for these faith-based organizations come from the opportunities to build relationships throughout the community and establish bonds of faith and trust with those in deepest need. These agencies help their suffering neighbors overcome some of the difficulties they face and put much-needed food on their tables.

But our agencies cannot be everywhere where there is need. Harvest Hope operates Mobile Food Pantries (MFP) to area not serviced by agencies or other feeding programs. The mission of our MFPs is to reach out to those with severe transportation limitations and take emergency food to them. Like the agency sites, our MFP delivery truck delivers food at designated churches or community centers and distributes the food with the help of area volunteers. Also, at this time of year our MFPs deliver quality, locally-grown fruits and vegetables through produce drops. Harvest Hope coordinates drops of locally-grown fresh produce based on the amount of produce on hand in our warehouse. During the summer the abundance of fresh donated produce allows us to deliver produce to our agencies on a rotating basis based on their individual need and service area.

Sometime this week give yourself enough time to drive off your regular route and allow yourself to see what others are facing everyday. Take some time over the weekend to get out to the rural areas and see the conditions that are a reality for so many. There is a very different world just a little removed from ours, and we may find that it is not so removed from ours.

Thank you and God Bless….

Denise Holland

CEO, Harvest Hope Food Bank

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. 
~St. Augustine


Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.  Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.                  ~Mark Twain

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