Allison Ericson, Valdosta Today News Director:

VALDOSTA — Today, Nov. 25, Second Harvest hosted their annual Thanksgiving food distribution at Valdosta High School. Second Harvest employees and volunteers handed out a total of 1,500 pantry boxes of food, each weighing around 20 pounds to local families in need.

“I think the event was a great success, and it’s really going to make a lot of families very happy for Thanksgiving, and hopefully going to ease a lot of stress too, these are families that a lot of them would not have the resources they needed,” Frank Richards, Director of Second Harvest said.

The pantry boxes included; green beans, diced tomatoes, corn, rice, beans, shelf stable milk, and orange juice. They also handed out perishable items like, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, and spinach as well. 

Over 100 volunteers from all over Valdosta stood in the rain this morning to help with the event. O’Neals Restaurants and Bank of the Ozarks helped fund the event.

“It is a one time deal that we can do once a year, but we do this work everyday, all year long. It is such a bonus to get the community out and to get them all involved, to help us pull this off it takes a lot of hands,” Richards said.