Unprecedented Hunger, Unprecedented Response

NEW ORLEANS --- August 25, 2006 --- Demand for emergency food from Gulf Coast members of America’s Second Harvest — The Nation’s Food Bank Network remains as much as 50 percent higher today than before the landfall of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma one year ago.

The America's Second Harvest Network, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization, has distributed a total of more than 82.5 million pounds of food and grocery products to help feed thousands of people in all of the impacted areas, as well as displaced evacuees.

“Our Network responded immediately in the hours after impact, and we continue to provide unprecedented relief services to the victims of the hurricanes in Louisiana and across the nation.” said Vicki Escarra, president and chief executive officer of the America’s Second Harvest Network.  “Our staff and volunteers have shown amazing resourcefulness and creativity in getting food to where it is needed. While you would hope that more people would be back on their feet by now, the need for food remains incredibly high.”

The Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana alone has increased food distribution from 14 million pounds to more than 50 million pounds in the 23 parishes it serves across coastal Louisiana.  Before Katrina, the food bank distributed food through nearly 300 agencies, such as soup kitchens, food pantries, community centers and churches. Today, only 119 remain in Southern Louisiana, aided by 60 disaster-relief agencies to feed those in need.

These donations have provided more than 64.4 million meals across the Gulf Coast states and southern Florida, but there is a great and continued need for emergency food throughout the gulf coast region. Of the more than 6 million Americans requesting emergency food assistance following Katrina’s landfall, 72 percent were seeking food assistance for the first time.

Many agencies affiliated with the Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana have made truly heroic efforts to feed their neighbors. Lift Up My Name Higher, a food pantry located in the gutted out home of its director, is serving residents trying to return to their homes in the Ninth Ward of Orleans Parish. The director, a senior woman, used her personal, limited funds to renovate her home to be able to provide for her neighbors.

Celebration Church served people in the parking lot of its flooded-out church in Jefferson Parish for several months after Katrina. They now have two sites, one in New Orleans operating out of a home and the second in St. Bernard Parish operating out of a tent. A third site is being set up in a gutted out home in St. John Parish.

Adullam Christian Fellowship operated its food pantry out of the parking lot of a flooded-out Wal-Mart in St. Bernard Parish for months after Katrina hit. At the time it was one of the few locations in St. Bernard Parish where residents who were trying to return home could get food and water. It has now relocated back inside its church.

America’s Second Harvest Network Members all along the Gulf Coast continue to be a leading part of community response from last year’s hurricane season.  The Emergency Response Pantry, a newly designed relief initiative at the Bay Area Food Bank in Mobile, Alabama, is a proactive solution to disaster relief.  Funded by America’s Second Harvest, the program includes 21 pantry sites, consisting of walk-in refrigerated units and generators able to run not only the unit, but any other equipment the site needs to conduct direct distribution to disaster victims.  These sites are located along the coastlines of Mississippi and Alabama, close enough to areas that will be affected by storm surge, but far enough away that they are out of the flood zones. 

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The America’s Second Harvest Network needs financial donations to maintain a strong disaster response program and to assist people affected by hunger everyday.  To make a financial donation, visit www.secondharvest.org or call 800-344-8070.  To locate the America’s Second Harvest Network Member serving your area, visit www.secondharvest.org to .

America’s Second Harvest — The Nation’s Food Bank Network, Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana, and the Bay Area Food Bank (Mobile) staff, volunteers, donors and clients are available to share their incredible stories and experiences from the past year. These include:

Vicki Escarra
President and CEO
America’s Second Harvest-The Nation’s Food Bank Network

Natalie Jayroe
President and CEO
Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana

Dave Reaney
President and CEO
Bay Area Food Bank, Mobile, Alabama

America's Second Harvest — The Nation's Food Bank Network is the largest charitable domestic  hunger-relief organization in the country with a Network of more than 200 Member food banks and food-rescue organizations serving all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.  The America's Second Harvest Network secures and distributes more than 2 billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually; and supports approximately 50,000 local charitable agencies operating more than 94,000 programs including food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, after-school programs and Kids Cafes. Last year, the America's Second Harvest Network provided food assistance to more than 25 million low-income hungry people in the United States, including 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors.  For more on the America's Second Harvest Network, please visit www.secondharvest.org.

Contact:
Ross Fraser / Maura Daly
Fraser cell: 312.307.8470
Daly cell: 301.943.3733