Second Harvest

Hey everybody,

The other day we toured Second Harvest, and I got to meet Tom von Berg out there.


It really opened my eyes - I thought Second Harvest did food drives and that’s it. Food drives and people went and got food there. What they really do is they distribute food to agencies and pantry’s that are able to distribute to hundreds of people. They are almost like a United Way for food.

I tell ya, as we talked with them and learned about their operation there were two things I left with. Number one, there are 100,000 people they feed annually, not just in Blount County – but all over east Tennessee. But there are still 100,000 people in the same area going hungry because there is a need for 200,000, but they are only able to meet the need for 100,000 because of money, space and time. But what is happening to those other 100,000 people?


The other thing I learned is that they are a very efficient operation. Only about 5% of the fundraising goes to fund the staff. The rest goes to deliverables to the customers. And that’s important. They are watching their dollars and they are not overspending them. They are spending the money on their mission. For every dollar that comes in, they can feed four people a meal. That just blows my mind – that all it takes is a $1 to feed a family of four one meal a day.

Tom also told us that Second Harvest has been giving more food to Blount County than Blount County has been contributing to their operation. They're runnin' a deficit over here, and I was surprised to hear about it. With them being in Knoxville, they are taking money from all different areas to help other counties. They help 19 counties! But the bottom line is Blount County needs to be taking care of Blount County. We need to look at that and address it – be able to raise the dollars and take care of the need. They’re obviously looking at that, but at the same time, not cutting us off so I appreciate that.

Tom was telling us the food drives are great, but monetary donations can be stretched more because of their buying power. I mean I think they are thankful for any donations. But we can't ignore that they have the ability to buy food cheaper than we can. A $3 can of peanut butter is a great donation, but they can buy 3 for $1. So that $1 donation to Second Harvest will go a lot further than a donation of one can of peanut butter. Of course, a gift is a gift though.

Well, I better go for now. Remember kick-off is next week, and you're all invited. (Just RSVP at 982-2251 or email uwbc@unitedwayblount.org by Tuesday.) We'll see y'all there! August 30th, 7:30 AM at the Airport Hilton.

Blog ya' later,
Dave Bennett