- Second Harvest Food Bank is gearing up for Thanksgiving, helped by a donation of 1,500 turkeys from Giant Food Stores
- Even with the large donation, demand is still "near-historic" a food bank official said
- Since 2020, food insecurity has skyrocketed, and this has been reflected in the amount of food the nonprofit goes through from month-to-month
NAZARETH, Pa. — At the Second Harvest Food Bank's warehouse complex, a crew of casually dressed volunteers blasted what sounded like someone's personal playlist through a Bluetooth speaker as while they packed up boxes of food.
"Kiss from a Rose" by Seal was playing, and a smiley man with one earring softly sang along while doing work.
He is Matthew Henry, a store employment associate at Giant in East Stroudsburg. This month, his company donated 1,500 frozen turkeys to the food bank.
Henry showed up early to help out at Second Harvest, partially because of his own connection to poverty.
"Well, we have some families who are less fortunate than others that really may have the need," he said. "I know, growing up poor I was in one of those families, so I understand."
Second Harvest Food Bank, whose demand is essentially higher than ever, said it is grateful for the support.
"Giant is a fantastic partner that works with us throughout the year,. But their commitment to us during the Thanksgiving time is incredible."Second Harvest Food Bank Associate Executive Director Allison Czapp
"Giant is a fantastic partner that works with us throughout the year," food bank Associate Executive Director Allison Czapp said. "But their commitment to us during the Thanksgiving time is incredible.
"So we have people here today packing boxes, but more importantly, Giant came through with a massive donation of 1,500 turkeys that families will be able to prepare for their Thanksgiving dinners this year."
Giant said in a news release that, as part of "its ongoing commitment to eliminate hunger in the communities it serves," it will donate a record 15,000 Thanksgiving turkeys to food banks and community partners in the Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia communities it serves.
Czapp took the media through a tour of the warehouse, and led reporters to a walk-in freezer, so cold that she put on a winter jacket from a rack next to the entrance.
She said for frozen donations, it's nice to have them long in advance so the families on the receiving-end have time to thaw them and cook them properly.
'Near-historic levels'
Czapp said she is concerned about how high the demand for the food bank's services has been — and it shows no signs of slowing down.
"You know, we just saw USDA come out with a new study on hunger and poverty that showed we're at near-historic rates, that the increases of hunger and food insecurity have increased," she said.
"Things have been pretty intense."Allison Czapp, associate executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank
"It's the largest one-year increase since 2008. So we know here [at the food bank], we see it every day, the need is increasing to extreme levels."
To illustrate the point, Czapp pointed to a section of the warehouse, about a third of the whole building, and said that before the COVID-19 pandemic, that was the only part of the building full of food.
Because of demand, Second Harvest's inventory and storage appears to have almost tripled, and the entire warehouse now is in use.
"Things have been pretty intense," Czapp said.
Second Harvest is accepting donations, through its website.
