Second Harvest Food Bank

Its was the 1960's. America was changing. One of the major issues for people was having enough food. Yet, thousands of restaurants and grocery stores across the country were throwing out millions of pounds of still good food. Volunteers at soup kitchens here and there started putting their brains together to come up with a better way to feed the millions of people who went hungry everyday.

This is the story of how the Feeding America organization got started. People realized that instead of throwing out still good food, they could store it in food banks, who could organize to hand it out to the people who needed it most.

At St. John's, we work with Feeding America through the Second Harvest Food Bank of Erie. "Feeding America’s mission is to feed America’s hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks and engage the country in the fight to end hunger.""Second Harvest is a member of Feeding America, a network of food banks and food distribution programs in the United States. This membership allows Second Harvest to cooperate with other member food banks, to receive food from national corporate food donors, and to benefit from national publicity and mutual support."

The Second Harvest organization website suggests the foods in the list below as the most needed donations to food banks across the country. From the list, you can see how this ministry of food is focused not just on making sure people are eating, but also making sure people are eating healthy and nutritious foods that will support their long term success. 

• Meals in a can (soup, stew, chili)
• Tuna or canned chicken
• Peanut butter
• Canned foods with pop-top lids
• Canned fruit in its own juice or water
• Low-sodium canned vegetables
• Olive or canola oil
• Spices
• Low-sugar whole grain cereals
• Healthy snacks (granola bars, nuts, dried fruit)