Cyrus, local artist and regular guest at The Master’s Table Soup Kitchen, talks with Golden Harvest staff after receiving a healthy lunch. Photo by Jeremy Cowart. “I love trains,” said Cyrus, as a long line of freight cars made their way down the tracks by The Master’s Table Soup Kitchen. “They’re like me — tough and durable.” It was a busy day at the Soup Kitchen. Arriving on bike, on foot, and from the bus stop, hungry neighbors waited outside for the courtyard to open at 11 a.m. A team of volunteers prepared and served trays of [...]

(l-r): Golden Harvest Food Bank’s Founder and first Executive Director Mike Firmin holds a photo of the Food Bank’s original Augusta Warehouse next to current President and CEO Amy Breitmann and renderings for the upcoming renovation of the Augusta facility. Friday, February 25th, 2022 marks a historic moment for Golden Harvest Food Bank as we celebrate our 40th anniversary. Founder and first Executive Director Mike Firmin sat down with us to share his reflections on what this moment means to him and to our community. Q: Can you share a bit about Golden Harvest’s founding? A: There [...]

Stoney smiles as he receives boxes of nutritious food at a Mobile Market food distribution in front of the Augusta warehouse. This was his first visit to the Food Bank after a long-term illness left him unable to work. When Stoney pulled up to a Golden Harvest Food Bank Mobile Market food distribution a few months ago, his big smile warmed hearts as he chatted with volunteers. As our team loaded food into the trunk of his car, Stoney shared that this was his first time receiving food assistance. Stoney lives with his wife in the area, [...]

(l-r): Women of Woodside members Jane Buege, Debbie Behlke, and Susan Potter got into the Spooky spirit as they collected donations for Woodside’s 2021 It’s Spooky To be Hungry® campaign. When asked what made her organization get involved in the 2021 It’s Spooky To Be Hungry® campaign, Women of Woodside Co-Chair for Community Outreach Linda Vieweg said it was a no-brainer. “Golden Harvest Food Bank serves Aiken County, and we wanted to support our community, especially with holiday needs coming up,” she shared. Women of Woodside members went all out to make their Spooky drive a success, [...]

(l-r): Pastor Larry Scarboro of S.M.I.L.E. Community Development Center and Golden Harvest Food Bank’s President and CEO Amy Breitmann celebrate S.M.I.L.E.’s renovation after the food pantry received one of Food Lion’s Great Pantry Makeover grants. Mr. Bud and his wife are 92 years old. It’s difficult for him to get out of the house very often, having suffered from a stroke 10 years ago. But when he can, he makes the trip to S.M.I.L.E. Community Development Center in Sylvania, Georgia to restock his kitchen. At the food pantry, Mr. Bud has received chicken, bread, steaks, vegetables, and [...]

Mike, a retired nurse, picks up food from the Greene County Food Pantry. The food helps Mike and his wife pay the bills and cook healthy meals. New client surveys from Golden Harvest will help the Food Bank better understand and serve neighbors like Mike. Volunteers wheel grocery carts full of food out of the Greene County Food Pantry nestled inside of the Greensboro Housing Authority at Morningside Apartments in Greensboro, GA. Mike waits outside his vehicle as volunteers load 30 pounds of food into the trunk. Mike is a retired CNA nurse who lives with his [...]

(l-r): Co-captains Rhonda and Celeste bring the It’s Spooky To Be Hungry® drive to Aiken’s Cedar Creek subdivision each year. Last year, their virtual drive raised funds for more than 36,500 meals. Celeste Malinowski and Rhonda Heath have headed up the It’s Spooky To Be Hungry® drive as neighborhood co-captains in Aiken’s Cedar Creek subdivision for more than 5 years. Those 5 years have seen changes to the 29-year-old drive, including the debut of a virtual drive option -- which Celeste and Rhonda say makes Spooky easier to captain than ever. “It’s so rewarding. We really feel [...]

Through a new partnership with Children’s Place in Aiken, S.C., Golden Harvest will provide weekend food to children who have experienced trauma. Children’s Place will also partner with the Food Bank to host a food pantry for families of the children it serves. Three home-cooked meals daily. Healthy snacks. And now, a backpack full of food for the weekend. That’s what Children’s Place, Inc. in Aiken, S.C. provides for kids like Ryan, who participates in the organization’s therapeutic daycare program. The Children’s Place childcare program provides children who have experienced trauma with counseling, behavioral and rehabilitative therapy, [...]

Dear Friends, Long before the pandemic caused thousands of community members to seek food assistance, hunger was a crisis in our area. 1 in 7 of your neighbors still face days without enough food. Golden Harvest Food Bank is committed to moving forward stronger and better equipped to serve. We are proud to announce a new Strategic Plan and 10-year vision to end hunger in our community. Our team has spent the past 9 months in a planning process driven by data from our service area and key learnings from the pandemic. Data shows an 8.8 million meal gap [...]

A volunteer packs food boxes at a contactless, drive-thru Mobile Market. Mobile Markets have become essential to our mission during the pandemic, and our volunteers help make them possible. More than a year ago, everything changed. Our Operations Team recruited the entire staff to pack hundreds of emergency food boxes. The next day, we held the Food Bank’s first drive-thru, no-contact Mobile Market. We had no idea that by the end of 2020, we would distribute more than 2.7 million meals this way -- or that a year later, it would still be the safest way to [...]