Thanks & Giving By David W. Brown “I have a more optimistic view than many people,” says Natalie Jayroe, the president and CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana, a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting hunger in South Louisiana. “I get to witness the generosity of the community all the time, every single day.” Second Harvest collects and distributes donated food to community members in need.
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a y ro e and I are walking through their immaculate, 200,000-squarefoot facility located in an industrial part of Elmwood, Louisiana. Forklifts zip around us between countless cargo pallets piled with 3 million pounds of food — everything from cereal boxes to salad dressing. The scale of the operation is breathtaking, more akin to a NASA center than the neighborhood soup kitchen. And they need every bit of that space. One out of every seven Louisianans are at risk for hunger, and one in five children. Louisiana is one of the most food-insecure states in the country, with one of the highest rates of food insecurity for seniors. “So, our work is cut out for us,” Jayroe says.
The story of Second Harvest began in 1982, when Archbishop Philip M. Hannan, Bishop Roger P. Morin and Gregory Ben Johnson, director of the Social Apostolate of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, started the organization as a nonsectarian endeavor and, in doing so, established the first food bank in the state of Louisiana. “We were founded by the Catholic Church as an organization that served all people in need,” Jayroe explains. “I think that was a brilliant decision on their part. It allowed Second Harvest to be seen as this entity that was for the entire community.” By July of the following year, the food bank was already distributing food to 23 faith-based and nonprofit partners. In 1985, it became a fully accredited member of what would later be called Feeding America. As a result, Second Harvest could receive large donations from across the country, and coordinate with other food banks nationally to exchange best practices and disaster responses.
Over time, Second Harvest has come to do more and more work across the southern part of the state. Their trucks have for years rolled to Lafayette, Lake Charles, Houma and Thibodaux. Today, they have, or are building, warehouses in those areas, allowing volunteers to collect more local food donations and move quickly to serve the people of those communities. “We can bring in the various programs that we offer in addition to food distribution, whether it’s our mobile market, our school pantries, our after-school and summer feeding programs, or our senior meal programs,” says Jayroe. The organization and its volunteers spearhead the battle against hunger in South Louisiana by providing not just food but also advocacy, education and post-disaster support through a vast network of more than 700 community partners and programs. It has grown to provide more than 50 million meals annually to those in need. Its mission encompasses food distribution programs, community kitchen meal service, nutrition education and public benefits assistance, aiming to create pathways out of poverty for the residents of South Louisiana. The remarkable journey of Second Harvest reflects Louisiana’s needs and heart. By being community-based, it is able to help people at the granular level. They look parish by parish at what they call the “missing meals”: the number of meals that families cannot afford to provide for themselves even after federal assistance. “In every parish, we know there are a certain number of million missing meals. We base our work on trying to fill that need, trying to close that gap, and ensure that there’s enough food going into each parish
“Rouses Markets is a big part of the reason we can be successful, because three-quarters of our food gets donated from private sources like the retailers.” – Natalie Jayroe, president and CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana to reach all people that are hungry.” And hunger doesn’t look the same everywhere, Jayroe adds. “You could have a senior that’s homebound. How do we reach that person? We have children that we go to through our school pantries. You have cancer patients that need a box of fresh food after they get their chemotherapy. So how do we do things that ensure we’re reaching vulnerable people where they can most take advantage of the nutritious food that we have to offer them?” The organization’s response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 proved defining moments. The disasters displaced more than a million people from their homes and devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Within two days of Katrina’s landfall, Second Harvest and its volunteers regrouped in Baton Rouge and, with the support of Feeding America and food bank volunteers nationwide, escalated operations to an unprecedented scale. By September 2005, Second Harvest had become the largest food bank in the history of the world. In those critical two years, Second Harvest distributed more than 75 million pounds of food. Presently, they distribute more than 40 million pounds of food annually. “Rouses Markets is a big part of the reason we can
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