Second Harvest Food Bank, WXII 12 partner for food drives

Second Harvest Food Bank, WXII 12 partner for food drives

Updated: 3:54 PM EST Dec 21, 2023

LOCAL FAMILIES HAVE A HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON. WE’RE HOSTING ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE. SHARE YOUR HOLIDAY FOOD DRIVES WITH OUR FRIENDS AT SECOND HARVEST FOOD BANK FOLKS WITH THE FOOD BANK SAY NOW MORE THAN EVER, PEOPLE NEED A LOT OF HELP PUTTING FOOD ON THE TABLE. OUR DAVONTE MCKENITH IS OUT COLLECTING DONATIONS FOR US AT HARRIS TEETER ON SOUTH CHURCH STREET IN BURLINGTON THIS AFTERNOON AND DEVANTE, HOW IS IT GOING OUT THERE. LINDSAY WE ARE DOING A GREAT JOB TODAY HERE IN BURLINGTON. LIKE YOU MENTIONED, THE HARRIS TEETER ON SOUTH CHURCH STREET. WE’LL BE HERE UNTIL 630 TONIGHT. SO FAR, WE GOT ABOUT 5 OR 6 BOXES ON THE TRUCK. THESE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF GETTING FILLED, BUT WE CERTAINLY NEED YOUR HELP. FRUITS AND VEGGIES, GRAINS, DAIRY PRODUCTS, PROTEINS, THE BASICS, OILS AND SPICES, SNACKS. THINK ABOUT THINGS THAT YOU WANT ON THE ON THE DINNER TABLE FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON AND COME BY AND DONATE IF YOU CAN. IF YOU CAN’T MAKE IT OUT, DON’T WORRY. YOU CAN SCAN THAT QR CODE YOU SEE THERE ON YOUR SCREEN AND WE APPRECIATE ANY MONETARY DONATIONS YOU CAN MAKE ONLINE AS WELL. WANT TO BRING IN JENNY MOORE. SHE IS WITH THE SECOND HARVEST FOOD BANK THIS AFTERNOON. JENNY, THANKS FOR BEING OUT HERE WITH US TODAY. THIS IS A CRUCIAL TIME OF YEAR. WE HAVE THE HOLIDAYS, HOLIDAY GATHERINGS, PARTIES, SCHOOL’S OUT FOR KIDS COMING UP SOON AND DONATIONS ARE GREATLY NEEDED. YES, WE ARE SEEING A HUGE INCREASE NEED, WHICH WE’VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT THROUGH ALL OF THESE EFFORTS WITH WXII 12, PRETTY RECORD HIGH SINCE WE STARTED TRACKING BACK IN EARLY JANUARY 2022. SO IT’S CONCERNING. IT’S ALARMING, ACTUALLY. THE THE DIRECTION THAT IT’S MOVING IN. SO WE ARE ASKING OUR COMMUNITY TO COME OUT AND DO WHAT IT ALWAYS DOES, WHICH IS STEP UP GREATLY AS BEST AS THEY ARE ABLE TO SUPPORT OUR WORK AND TALK ABOUT THE HOW FAR MONETARY DONATIONS GO. THAT DOLLAR CERTAINLY GOES A LONG, LONG WAY, RIGHT? A DOLLAR WITH A DOLLAR WE CAN PROVIDE UP TO SIX MEALS. AND AGAIN, THAT’S LARGELY BECAUSE THE MOST OF OUR FOOD IS DONATED AND WE HAVE A HUGE ARMY OF VOLUNTEERS THAT IS FREE LABOR ALSO THAT WE LOVE AND SOME OF THE THINGS THAT FOLKS CAN BRING BY GO THROUGH THAT LIST FOR US. OH YEAH, YOU HIT IT WELL. SO AGAIN, THINKING ABOUT NUTRITION STUFF, BUT ALSO WHAT PEOPLE IN YOUR OWN FAMILY LIKE. SO I ALWAYS LIKE TO SAY PROTEIN. SO THOSE CANNED MEATS ARE AWESOME. BUT EVEN PEANUT BUTTER AND THEN THE THINGS YOU DON’T TEND TO THINK ABOUT OILS, COOKING, SPICES, THINGS THAT HELP ZIP UP, PERHAPS, YOU KNOW, A BAG OF RICE OR BEANS, YOU KNOW. JENNY, THANK YOU AGAIN, FOLKS, WE ARE OUT HERE AT THE SOUTH CHURCH STREET. HARRIS TEETER HERE IN BURLINGTON. WE’LL BE OUT HERE UNTIL 630 TONIGHT. FOLKS CAN COME ON UP, SAY HELLO, DROP OFF DONATIONS. IF YOU CAN’T MAKE IT OUT, VISIT US ONLINE. THAT WEBSITE ONCE AGAIN, WXII. 12.COM/SECOND HARVEST. GUYS, BACK TO YOU. ALL RIGHT, DAVONTE. JENNY, GOOD STUFF. THANK YOU BOTH. AND YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO GIVE BACK VIRTUALLY AS WELL IF YOU SCAN THIS QR CODE ON YOUR SCREEN, IT’LL TAKE YOU RIGHT TO A LINK ON OUR WEBSITE. AS DEVONTE MENTIONED, WXII 12.COM. YOU CAN MAKE A SAFE, SECURE ONLINE DONATION. THERE. TOGETHER, WE HAVE RAISED MORE TH

Second Harvest Food Bank, WXII 12 partner for food drives

Updated: 3:54 PM EST Dec 21, 2023

There is a hunger need and you can help feed families right here in North Carolina. A startling statistic is that one in five children living in northwest North Carolina across the 18 counties Second Harvest serves is facing hunger and uncertainty about where their next nutritious meal will come from but you can help change that. WXII 12 News is partnering with the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC to host a number of in-person food drives. We will let you know when we continue with our food drives in 2024. If you can't donate in person, you can donate online here. You can also text a donation by texting keyword FOOD to 50155. You can drop off any non-perishable food item.We can't do it without you! Thank you for your donations.Foods you can donate:You can donate dry and canned food donations. Only donate food that hasn't reached its "Sell-by" date. Peanut butter Canned soup Canned fruit Canned vegetables Canned stew Canned fish Canned beans Pasta (most prefer whole grain) Rice (most prefer brown rice)Download a food shopping list!If you can't donate in person, you can donate online here. You can also text a donation by texting keyword FOOD to 50155. Please join us in contributing to a great cause. We can't do it without you! Thank you for your donations.

There is a hunger need and you can help feed families right here in North Carolina.

A startling statistic is that one in five children living in northwest North Carolina across the 18 counties Second Harvest serves is facing hunger and uncertainty about where their next nutritious meal will come from but you can help change that.

WXII 12 News is partnering with the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC to host a number of in-person food drives.

We will let you know when we continue with our food drives in 2024.

If you can't donate in person, you can donate online here. You can also text a donation by texting keyword FOOD to 50155.

You can drop off any non-perishable food item.

We can't do it without you! Thank you for your donations.

Foods you can donate:

You can donate dry and canned food donations. Only donate food that hasn't reached its "Sell-by" date.

Download a food shopping list!

If you can't donate in person, you can donate online here. You can also text a donation by texting keyword FOOD to 50155.

Please join us in contributing to a great cause. We can't do it without you! Thank you for your donations.

Food banks take stock of 2023's challenges

Dec. 31—In the back room of Bienvenidos Outreach on a recent morning, food stretched toward the ceiling, stacked on shelves and in black milk crates well above head-height.

The rush of nonperishable goods — from clam juice to yellow mustard, masa flour to cooking oil, refried beans to coffee beans — are destined for the Santa Fe food pantry's clients.

But the shelves are only full for now, said Susan Tarver, the organization's executive director. They'll empty again soon.

"This looks like we have a lot, but it can be gone in less than a month. It goes really fast," Tarver said.

During the holiday season, many local food banks see a spike in demand for their services, as gift-buying saps savings and travelers bring more mouths to feed.

But in 2023, the holiday sting in November and December came after a uniquely challenging year, one in which shrinking federal benefits and inflated food costs combined to create a surge in food insecurity, said Jill Dixon, deputy director of Northern New Mexico food bank The Food Depot.

The past year has pushed local food banks closer to their limits, and Dixon, alongside food bank officials across New Mexico, is hoping state legislators will do something about it during the 2024 legislative session, which begins Jan. 16.

"Realistically, we understand as a food bank that there is a limit to how much we can do," Dixon said. "The continued expansion of that perfect storm — seeing more and more people — is more than the charitable food system can sustain. We can't continue to see the number of people in need increase exponentially forever."

Beezy and Steve Bing have a system for packing food boxes for Bienvenidos Outreach's clients, and it was on display Wednesday. Beezy Bing collected 10 of each food item — delicacies that day included boxes of raisins, packaged salads, bags of rice, spaghetti squash, fresh herbs and much more — and placed all of them on a table. From there, Steve Bing transferred the food into 10 cardboard boxes, adding one of each food to each box.

Once the Bings had completed their work, the boxes moved toward a wall of refrigerators, where other volunteers piled in cold items — ground turkey, cheese, sausages, eggs.

Each box of food includes supplies for around two weeks, Tarver said, and Bienvenidos Outreach also operates programs providing weekday lunches for the homeless and cat and dog food for pet owners.

Tarver has crunched the numbers: 2023's food distribution numbers are expected to be significantly higher than 2022.

"We're going to probably break some records," she said.

In November and December 2023, Bienvenidos handed out about 2,000 boxes of food, compared to 1,664 during the same period in 2022. The same occurred with the organization's lunch program, which served about 2,300 lunches in November and December 2023 and 1,830 during the two-month period in 2022.

The holiday season brought a "definite increase" in the number of people seeking food from Bienvenidos in 2023, Tarver said. In fact, volunteer Jenny Mier added, demand has spiked during November and December each year for the more than two decades she's been volunteering with the organization.

The holiday season also comes with an increased awareness of food insecurity, Dixon said.

"We always want to turn our attention to food security stuff around the holidays, I think, because we're all sort of in the mood to celebrate and come together," she said. "Maybe that makes us a little more acutely aware of the struggles of people around us ... [or] we feel that pinch a little bit because we have a lot of people to buy presents for or putting together a holiday meal is more expensive than it used to be.

"But really, we've been seeing that increased demand since March," Dixon added.

In 2023, the holiday pinch aggravated existing food insecurity issues in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.

Pandemic-era Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program emergency allotments ended in March 2023, reducing federal food aid by $2 billion per month nationwide and leaving families across New Mexico scrambling for grocery money.

Nearly 8,000 households in Santa Fe County — and nearly 150,000 households across New Mexico — receive SNAP benefits, according to the Santa Fe Data Platform, a local public-private data collection project.

For SNAP recipients, the shift back to normal was dramatic: During the era of emergency allotments, a family of three could receive a maximum of $740 in SNAP benefits per month, according to the New Mexico Human Services Department. By April 2023, the same family would receive an average of just $335 per month, less than half their pandemic-era federal food benefits.

For some Santa Feans, the emergency allotments made the difference between a diet of canned beans and packaged ramen and consuming fresh fruits and vegetables.

As SNAP benefits decreased, food prices increased. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated all food prices would increase by nearly 6% in 2023 — less growth than 2022, but still above historically average rates.

And as food costs increased, donations to New Mexico's food banks decreased.

The Santa Fe-based Food Depot's food budget lays bare the effects of increasing food prices. In 2019, the food bank budgeted $250,000 for purchasing food, Dixon said. The organization budgeted $6.5 million for the same line item in 2023.

At the state level, New Mexico made some significant strides toward eradicating hunger. Most notably, state lawmakers passed legislation providing free breakfast and lunch to all public school students.

That's a great step, Dixon said, but there's more to be done to ensure other vulnerable populations — like seniors and residents of rural communities — can access food.

So Dixon, like other food bank officials, is looking to the 2024 legislative session for possible solutions to the compounding challenges food banks are facing.

In November, the New Mexico Association of Food Banks, which includes five major food banks across the state, compiled a list of requests for the session, requests that include an additional appropriation of $5 million to purchase more shelf-stable food and combining food and nutrition programs under under one state agency.

Crucially, the food banks also requested increasing SNAP eligibility to 200% of the federal poverty level, allowing more New Mexicans to buy their own food using federal assistance and decreasing the burden on food banks.

"We have such a commitment to providing really nutritious food — you go to our distributions and you're going to see eggs and fresh produce and protein items and delicious bread," Dixon said.

"That's so important to us, and we don't want to be put in a position where we have to reduce how much food we provide or the quality of the food we provide to people across our communities."

Food banks take stock of 2023's challenges

Dec. 31—In the back room of Bienvenidos Outreach on a recent morning, food stretched toward the ceiling, stacked on shelves and in black milk crates well above head-height.

The rush of nonperishable goods — from clam juice to yellow mustard, masa flour to cooking oil, refried beans to coffee beans — are destined for the Santa Fe food pantry's clients.

But the shelves are only full for now, said Susan Tarver, the organization's executive director. They'll empty again soon.

"This looks like we have a lot, but it can be gone in less than a month. It goes really fast," Tarver said.

During the holiday season, many local food banks see a spike in demand for their services, as gift-buying saps savings and travelers bring more mouths to feed.

But in 2023, the holiday sting in November and December came after a uniquely challenging year, one in which shrinking federal benefits and inflated food costs combined to create a surge in food insecurity, said Jill Dixon, deputy director of Northern New Mexico food bank The Food Depot.

The past year has pushed local food banks closer to their limits, and Dixon, alongside food bank officials across New Mexico, is hoping state legislators will do something about it during the 2024 legislative session, which begins Jan. 16.

"Realistically, we understand as a food bank that there is a limit to how much we can do," Dixon said. "The continued expansion of that perfect storm — seeing more and more people — is more than the charitable food system can sustain. We can't continue to see the number of people in need increase exponentially forever."

Beezy and Steve Bing have a system for packing food boxes for Bienvenidos Outreach's clients, and it was on display Wednesday. Beezy Bing collected 10 of each food item — delicacies that day included boxes of raisins, packaged salads, bags of rice, spaghetti squash, fresh herbs and much more — and placed all of them on a table. From there, Steve Bing transferred the food into 10 cardboard boxes, adding one of each food to each box.

Once the Bings had completed their work, the boxes moved toward a wall of refrigerators, where other volunteers piled in cold items — ground turkey, cheese, sausages, eggs.

Each box of food includes supplies for around two weeks, Tarver said, and Bienvenidos Outreach also operates programs providing weekday lunches for the homeless and cat and dog food for pet owners.

Tarver has crunched the numbers: 2023's food distribution numbers are expected to be significantly higher than 2022.

"We're going to probably break some records," she said.

In November and December 2023, Bienvenidos handed out about 2,000 boxes of food, compared to 1,664 during the same period in 2022. The same occurred with the organization's lunch program, which served about 2,300 lunches in November and December 2023 and 1,830 during the two-month period in 2022.

The holiday season brought a "definite increase" in the number of people seeking food from Bienvenidos in 2023, Tarver said. In fact, volunteer Jenny Mier added, demand has spiked during November and December each year for the more than two decades she's been volunteering with the organization.

The holiday season also comes with an increased awareness of food insecurity, Dixon said.

"We always want to turn our attention to food security stuff around the holidays, I think, because we're all sort of in the mood to celebrate and come together," she said. "Maybe that makes us a little more acutely aware of the struggles of people around us ... [or] we feel that pinch a little bit because we have a lot of people to buy presents for or putting together a holiday meal is more expensive than it used to be.

"But really, we've been seeing that increased demand since March," Dixon added.

In 2023, the holiday pinch aggravated existing food insecurity issues in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.

Pandemic-era Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program emergency allotments ended in March 2023, reducing federal food aid by $2 billion per month nationwide and leaving families across New Mexico scrambling for grocery money.

Nearly 8,000 households in Santa Fe County — and nearly 150,000 households across New Mexico — receive SNAP benefits, according to the Santa Fe Data Platform, a local public-private data collection project.

For SNAP recipients, the shift back to normal was dramatic: During the era of emergency allotments, a family of three could receive a maximum of $740 in SNAP benefits per month, according to the New Mexico Human Services Department. By April 2023, the same family would receive an average of just $335 per month, less than half their pandemic-era federal food benefits.

For some Santa Feans, the emergency allotments made the difference between a diet of canned beans and packaged ramen and consuming fresh fruits and vegetables.

As SNAP benefits decreased, food prices increased. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated all food prices would increase by nearly 6% in 2023 — less growth than 2022, but still above historically average rates.

And as food costs increased, donations to New Mexico's food banks decreased.

The Santa Fe-based Food Depot's food budget lays bare the effects of increasing food prices. In 2019, the food bank budgeted $250,000 for purchasing food, Dixon said. The organization budgeted $6.5 million for the same line item in 2023.

At the state level, New Mexico made some significant strides toward eradicating hunger. Most notably, state lawmakers passed legislation providing free breakfast and lunch to all public school students.

That's a great step, Dixon said, but there's more to be done to ensure other vulnerable populations — like seniors and residents of rural communities — can access food.

So Dixon, like other food bank officials, is looking to the 2024 legislative session for possible solutions to the compounding challenges food banks are facing.

In November, the New Mexico Association of Food Banks, which includes five major food banks across the state, compiled a list of requests for the session, requests that include an additional appropriation of $5 million to purchase more shelf-stable food and combining food and nutrition programs under under one state agency.

Crucially, the food banks also requested increasing SNAP eligibility to 200% of the federal poverty level, allowing more New Mexicans to buy their own food using federal assistance and decreasing the burden on food banks.

"We have such a commitment to providing really nutritious food — you go to our distributions and you're going to see eggs and fresh produce and protein items and delicious bread," Dixon said.

"That's so important to us, and we don't want to be put in a position where we have to reduce how much food we provide or the quality of the food we provide to people across our communities."