SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) — The season of giving is here and that means that it is an even busier time for non-profits like Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia and The Salvation Army.
Every year they help families have a happier thanksgiving by helping them put food on the table. Both organizations told News 3 they have seen a surge in need across the region.
“Our community is in desperate need of help,” Major Jason Smith, Corps Officer with The Salvation Army said. “Poverty is everywhere and it's impacting families that haven't experienced it before.”
The Salvation Army in Savannah serves around over 120,000 meals each year and will be able to feed 500 people on Thanksgiving. However, because of the growing need in the community, Major Smith said that they will need volunteers and donations after Thanksgiving Day and into the winter months.
“Most of the storms that we've had back-to-back, we have seen an increase in folks needing our assistance,” Major Smith said. “So that comes through various programs that the salvation army offers, especially during this time of the year. the angel tree program, which we partner with WSAV with holiday hope. So, we have a lot of families who are coming to us for Christmas assistance this year that have been impacted by the storms.”
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Second Harvest is also calling on to community members to volunteer. They said that in October the food bank typically distributes around 1.2 million meals. However, this October they served around 1.8 million meals.
As we head into the winter months, they said they don’t expect the demand to decrease.
For the Thanksgiving holiday, the food bank has partnered with other local non-profits and faith-based organizations to help struggling families and individuals. They said that they've already given out more than 4,000 turkeys.
“A family that is struggling to put food on the table and then they had to throw everything away that was in their freezer,” Mary Jane Crouch, Director of Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia said. "Now they have nothing to go back and fall back on when their paycheck runs short or when they have to be out of work because their child was sick, or they were sick, or they had to buy medicine or something like that."
The Salvation Army will give be serving meals on Thanksgiving starting with lunch at 11 a.m. and dinner at 4 p.m. at 3100 Montgomery Street.