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Pictured (L to R) are: Elizabeth Quackenbush, Chief Development Officer for Harvest Hope Food Bank, Phil Midden, Spring Valley Rotary Community Services Director and Spring Valley Rotary President Dennis Rabon.
The Rotary Club of Spring Valley presented representatives from Harvest Hope Food Bank with a $5,000 contribution at the September 22 meeting. Headquartered in Columbia, Harvest Hope is a regional distribution organization that collects, stores, and distributes food and related items to more than 450 partner agencies in a 20 county service area in South Carolina. Harvest Hope partners with Feeding America, the largest charitable hunger relief organization in the United States. In 2010 they distributed over 22 million pounds of food to feed 2,037,496 individuals.
"They had an immediate need for donors to support their 'Totes of Love' program. We contributed the initial $2,500 and our Rotary District matched it with a $2,500 grant," said Dennis Rabon, Spring Valley Rotary club president. "Our club has supported Harvest Hope for many years and it's a community partnership that we're proud of," added Rabon.
The 'Totes of Love' program will provide monthly supplemental packages of approximately 25 pounds of healthy and nutritionally balanced foods for 24 Richland County senior citizens twice per month. Supplemental packages will include fresh fruits and vegetables, healthy protein sources and low fat and low sodium alternatives. In addition to the food packages, participants will also receive information on preparing healthy recipes based on the foods provided in the packet. A key component in this process is the ability to meet with program participants face-to-face in order to provide on-going health assessments and provide companionship to these individuals.