WEXFORD PLANTATION CHARITABLE FUND JUMPS ON BOARD
New Program Supports Hospitality Workers and Food Rescue
Second Helpings’ food rescue operation needs volunteers, particularly since some volunteers are unable to help out of concerns for the Coronavirus. SERG Restaurant Group has employees who want to help so a new partnership was recently formed.
Feeding people is what the staff at SERG do on a daily basis. While the Coronavirus has impacted the operations of the group’s restaurants, SERG management is committed to helping its employees navigate this difficult time. So as of a week ago, six employees of SERG are “volunteering” to rescue food with Second Helpings each week in exchange for funds that are helping those SERG employees who are not currently working due to shutdowns from the Coronavirus. Funding for the effort is from the Lowcountry Community COVID-19 Response Fund, a fund of Community Foundation of the Lowcountry, and the Wexford Plantation Charitable Foundation.
Stephen Carter of the Wexford Plantation Charitable Fund said, “While the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is yet to be determined, Wexford Plantation Charitable Fund recently reached out to local nonprofits that provide basic needs to our community such as food, housing, and healthcare. Second Helpings requested to support their food rescue efforts with hospitality workers who have lost pay and this is something we strongly supported. This grant award will provide Second Helpings with the essential services needed to prevent hunger in our community while supporting our local workforce. We are continuing to monitor the situation for Second Helpings and all of the agencies we partner with.”
Lili Coleman, Second Helpings’ executive director, calls the program a boost for the SERG employees and for the food pantries/soup kitchens served by Second Helpings. “It’s essential that we continue to pick up and deliver food since it’s needed so desperately throughout Beaufort, Hampton, and Jasper counties. Our volunteers welcome assistance from the SERG team members during this crisis.”
The SERG employees follow the Second Helpings trucks and assist in loading and distributing the food to local food pantries. This program will be expanded in Beaufort and will assist food rescue efforts on Hilton Head Island, in the Greater Bluffton area, Jasper County, Beaufort, and in Hampton County.
This is just one effort by Second Helpings to assist the growing need to fight hunger. Individual donations are being used to purchase food where there are grocery store shortages, to provide food to the families in Hampton County affected by the tornados, and to rescue food anywhere to prevent food waste.
As the only authorized food rescue agency in Beaufort, Hampton, and Jasper counties, Second Helpings provides most, or, in some cases, all of the food distributed to the hungry by food agencies in these counties. This is done by rescuing food from local grocery stores. Second Helpings also provides fresh produce to their agency partners, grown at Dempsey Farms on St. Helena Island.
Second Helpings is also collecting non-perishable food and sanitation items. Donors can bring their donations to three convenient locations in Beaufort County. The three locations are:
- the Community Center in Sun City;
- Grayco Hardware Parking Lot, 20 Sams Point Way in Beaufort; or
- Second Helpings’ office on Hilton Head Island at 4 Northridge Drive.
In the spirit of safe distancing, donors are asked to look for the Second Helpings’ trucks and load their donations in the back of the truck. The items will be quarantined for three days and then distributed to the agencies most in need.
Second Helpings also accepts donations to help pay for food. In the past two weeks, over $20,000 has been spent on food to supplement low food inventory at the food donor locations. Second Helpings’ board of directors has designated $40,000 from their budget to support these efforts now through the end of May. Donate today at www.secondhelpingslc.org or send a check to Second Helpings, P. O. Box 23621, Hilton Head, SC 29925.
Second Helpings is 100 percent funded by private grants and donations and has been designated as a South Carolina Angel Charity for fiscal stewardship.
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