Second Helpings has been going to the Port Royal Farmers Market on a weekly basis every Saturday. The effort was led by Mike Chambers, Dave Graybeal, and Jeff Kravis (pictured). The team of volunteers includes Tom Howell, Marc LoPresti, Yvonne Visser, Andy Smith, Frank Jones, Chuck Schweitzer, and Andrea Pritchard.
Most often we have a chair, some boxes, and a sign identifying who we are; occasionally we have a table, a Second Helpings table skirt, along with some marketing materials.
The greatest benefit is that we pick up on average 122 lbs of fresh produce every week. That’s a total of 2,694lbs from late April, when we started this program, until early October, mostly delivered to Port Royal United Methodist Church as the number of their food recipients keeps growing.
Shoppers at the market have contributed over $600 to our cash contribution cookie jar. And we have had at least seven people sign up as future volunteers including some folks in their early thirties who are really looking to “give back” to the community in a meaningful way.
Second Helpings benefits from increasing awareness of our mission as numerous people have approached us in the farmers market to find out more about us after seeing our trucks out and about in the community.
