‘No one who has served in our military should struggle with food insecurity’, Midlands food bank gives back to local veterans

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - As the Holiday season approaches, the Midlands community is coming together to help those who are struggling with food insecurity.

Veterans are a demographic that is high-risk for food insecurity.

But just ahead of this Veterans day, the South Carolina Department of Veteran Affairs is partnering with Harvest Hope to host a food drive.

According to the SCDVA health and wellness coordinator, Rodney Oldham, it is a partnership some veterans rely on.

“The inspiration behind this partnership is the fact that we know that veterans and their families deal with food insecurities,” he said. “We also know that hunger impacts all of our active-duty members, too.”

According to Feeding America, one in nine working-age Veterans live in food insecure households and 24% of active-duty service members were food insecure in 2020.

Research shows that veterans most likely to experience the shortages are female, disabled, or unemployed.

To help the South Carolina Veteran community, SCDVA has turned to Harvest Hope.

Erinn Rowe is the CEO of Harvest Hope Food Bank, and her organization started this partnership with SCDVA last year. The reason for the partnership was simple.

“We have an amazing military population, and I truly believe that anyone who served in the military shouldn’t have to struggle with food insecurity, but the sad thing is, they do,” she said. “We need to come together as a community and make sure that our Veterans are fed.”

The food drive will be held until November 17th.

Drop off Locations include:

• Harvest Hope on 2220 Shop Rd, Columbia, SC 29201.
• The South Carolina Department of Veterans Affairs office, 1800 St. Julian Place, Suite 305, Columbia, SC.

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