Boys & Girls Club Unit Director Kim Likins, Second Helpings Bluffton/Hilton Head Coordinator Paula Fanelly, and Boys & Girls Club Director of Character & Leadership Development Bernard Burton stand in front of a mural outside the Club.
Each day, more than 250 children walk, skip, or dance through the doors of the beautiful Boys & Girls Club campus on the north end of Hilton Head Island. For over thirty years, the Club has served local children ages 6-18 with outstanding educational and recreational programs after school and all day in the summer.
The Club also provides its families and the local community an opportunity to access fresh food at no cost. Every day, a pop-up food pantry with meats, produce, dairy and baked goods is assembled by staff and volunteers, and is visited by about 65% of Club families and neighbors. All of this food is provided by Second Helpings: our Hilton Head-based trucks stop there every weekday, and delivered more than 51,000 pounds of rescued food in 2021.
The food pantry is important to Club families. According to the Boys & Girls Club HHI website, “a staggering 63% of our Club members live in families that fall below the national federal poverty guidelines. In fact, 45% of our members’ families fall at the lowest level, making $25,000 or less per year.”
Second Helpings works closely with Unit Director Kim Likins and Director of Character & Leadership Development Bernard Burton to best meet Club families’ needs. They have high praise for Second Helpings’ drivers and the impact they enable them to have on these families and the community.
Birthday cakes are a popular item. “We try to make sure that every kid gets a cake to celebrate their birthday,” Likins said.
