Betty, the food pantry director at BreakFree Augusta Ministries, shows off the organization’s new side-by-side refrigerator and freezer unit made possible by a Feeding America grant. The unit will help distribute more produce, milk, and meat. When the food pantry director at BreakFree Augusta Ministries heard she could get the pantry a new refrigerator/freezer unit -- for free -- she didn’t hesitate. “I jumped on it,” Betty says. “It doubled our freezer space.” About 40 families a month come through the tidy pantry tucked into the back of the church on North Leg Court in Augusta. The [...]

Wheels Up volunteers prepare food boxes at a Mobile Market in front of Golden Harvest’s Aiken Warehouse. They served 120 meals at The Master’s Table Soup Kitchen and provided 326 families with nutritious food at the Mobile Market in Aiken as part of a Day of Service. The line of cars that starts in front of Golden Harvest’s Aiken warehouse winds over a mile down side streets and out onto Banks Mill Road. Gail, a senior living in the Aiken area, pulls through the line as volunteers from private aviation company Wheels Up load food into her [...]

(l-r): Mary and Joanne wait in line at a Mobile Market food distribution provided by Unity Outreach Church in Gloverville, S.C. Since Mary’s recent surgery, medical costs have made it difficult to keep food on the table. The two attend the Mobile Market event every two weeks. Joanne and her mother, Mary, breathe the cool air drifting in through their car windows as they wait in line at the Unity Outreach Church Mobile Market distribution in Gloverville, S.C. “The food has been helping us a great deal,” Joanne says. “My mother has been in the hospital and [...]

(l-r) Frieda and Bobby share how receiving nutritious food helps maintain their health at the SmartBox food pantry in Fairfax, South Carolina. Thanks to you, the food pantry recently received 2 3-door freezers to help store and distribute more fresh foods. At the SmartBox Mobile Market distribution, cars stretch down the street as community members line up to receive food. What you don’t realize at first is how long the line is. If you had a bird’s eye view, you’d see the line of cars snake around the block, down an alleyway, across a parking lot and [...]

A guest enjoys her meal at the newly reopened Augusta Dream Center Diner. The Center’s reopening means it can provide in-person dining again, as well as crucial wraparound services like its clothes closet. At 5 p.m., Marlin straightens the tabletop menu and a bottle of hand sanitizer, then he walks to the Augusta Dream Center’s front door to begin letting in guests. It’s time for Sunday dinner. In the gym, 10 tables are set up with 4 places each so that guests can practice social distancing. Plates of food, drinks and condiments will be rolled over to [...]

Lisa, Avant and their dog Ajax wait in line to receive food help. Avant is a retired veteran and Lisa has neurosarcoidosis and is unable to work. They received a box of shelf-stable food plus fresh produce and frozen meat at a Golden Harvest Food Bank ‘Mega’ Mobile Market. Fortina worked as a first-grade teacher before serving in the healthcare system as a nurse for 20 years. She never thought she’d find herself seeking food assistance. But now that she’s a senior citizen on a fixed income, it’s hard to make ends meet. “I’m not out of [...]

The It’s Spooky to Be Hungry® campaign broke all records this year, collecting more than 35,000 pounds of food and raising enough funds for almost 692,000 meals -- all thanks to our community. October 2020 marked the 28th year for Golden Harvest’s annual It’s Spooky To Be Hungry® campaign, and it turned out to be a year like no other. It’s Spooky To Be Hungry® is one of the oldest grassroots food and funds drives in the country, but like so many things in 2020, it had to be re-imagined to help keep our community safe. That [...]

Darius and Darren receive BackPack meal packs full of child-friendly food through Golden Harvest community partner Weekend Blessings of Emanuel County. At first there’s no answer at Phoebe’s house along a stretch of road just outside Swainsboro, Ga. But then she sees who -- and what -- is waiting and quickly comes to the door. It’s her three children’s weekend BackPacks for the next two weeks, delivered by Golden Harvest community partner Weekend Blessings of Emanuel County. “You have no idea how much this helps. It helps exponentially, it truly does,” she says, gathering up the bags [...]

A Soldier from the South Carolina National Guard distributes fresh produce from Golden Harvest’s new refrigerated van at The Smart Box Food Pantry in Fairfax, SC. The car line at Friday food distributions at The Smart Box in Fairfax, S.C., is always long. Hungry families know they’ll receive boxes of nonperishable items, produce and frozen meat. But at a June distribution, they got a surprise -- boxes of fresh dairy, meat and produce transported by our new refrigerated van that was purchased through a grant funded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Even now, when calls for food [...]

A volunteer from 143 Ministries delivers food to homebound neighbors in need. The organization has delivered over 200,000 meals since the start of the pandemic. Delivering groceries to homebound and hungry families isn’t what members of 143 Ministries International usually feel called to do. But during the COVID-19 health crisis, it’s become their way of giving back to the community in an uncertain time. As at-risk or ill community members self-isolate, the need for home-delivered meals has quickly risen -- especially as more and more families in our area seek food assistance. “We saw the need and [...]