Community helps Harvest Hope Food Bank recover after burst pipe floods building
By Peyton Furtado
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GREENVILLE, South Carolina (WYFF) — When a pipe burst over the Christmas weekend, Harvest Hope Food Bank employees worried they’d lose hundreds of thousands of pounds of food. Just two weeks later, donations are flying through their doors and replenishing their shelves.
Harvest Hope sustained major damage to its building and food supply when a burst pipe flooded the Greenville location ankle-deep in water. They lost almost 50,000 pounds of food, but it could have been much worse.
“If that army of angels hadn’t come, instead of less than 50,000 pounds worth of food, we could have lost hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of food,” said Harvest Hope Philanthropy Vice President Chad Scott.
As of Tuesday morning, churches, businesses, and individuals have donated 6,032 pounds of food and $22,000 to help the non-profit recover and feed the community. Just in time, too. According to Scott, the federal government has narrowed down who is eligible for programs like free and reduced lunch, and now SNAP benefits, or food stamps, at the end of January.
“You know, they may need money to pay the light bill because that went up, too. If they can get some produce for free, that’s some money that they didn’t have to spend at the grocery store,” said Veronica Rosemond, a volunteer.
“We are now seeing numbers that are well above what we saw during the height of the pandemic because of the end of all the subsidies that were out there,” Scott said.
According to Scott, 30 to 35 percent of the residents in the 20 counties they serve rely on SNAP benefits. Because of the Upstate’s generosity, the food bank will be better prepared for higher demand.
“We don’t know what’s coming next. We don’t know what the next need is going to be,” he said. “But what we can say is we’re past pandemic levels of needing food, and because of folks like you, we’re going to be meeting those needs.”
WYFF News 4 will collect food at the Ingles in Greer from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday to help Harvest Hope feed the hungry men, women, and children in our community.
“One in six children are going to be going to bed hungry in the upstate tonight,” Scott said. “And that’s unconscionable. The upstate is a giving community. That’s a number that we can drive down. If you give to us, we will do our best to reach everyone in every community in the upstate, so nobody goes to bed hungry tonight.”
Harvest Hope is still asking for shelf-stable foods, like canned veggies and boxed macaroni and cheese.
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