SECOND HELPINGS
Rescuing Food for Our Neighbors Who Need It
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
One in nine local residents is unable to afford all the food they need. There is a high correlation between food insecurity and increased medical problems, including diabetes. In the South Carolina Lowcountry, where we operate, there are regions that are considered food deserts. Here, access to affordable, healthy food is limited or nonexistent because grocery stores are too far away. Without a car or access to public transportation, it is difficult to sustain a healthy diet. Over 50% of local children are on free or reduced-price lunches; in some towns, it's 100%. Insufficient nutrition puts children at risk for illness, weakens their immune system, and limits the growth and development of their bodies and brain. By rescuing food and providing it to the hungry, we are also addressing the environmental impact of wasted food: approximately 40% of food produced in our country goes to waste. Nearly all of it ends up in landfills, harming our environment.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Food Rescue program
Second Helpings is a nonprofit food rescue and distribution network striving to eliminate hunger in the South Carolina Lowcountry. We collect and distribute food which would have otherwise ended up in landfills.
Our more than 300 volunteers supply more than 50 nonprofit food pantries, soup kitchens, agencies and churches in Beaufort, Hampton and Jasper counties. We provide them with enough food to produce 51,000 meals for hungry people in our community every week.
Healthy Food Initative
Our food rescue operations yield a limited amount of fresh produce. Because produce is essential to a healthy diet, Second Helpings launched a program to solicit grants to supply additional fresh produce and protein to our agency partners. Working with a local farmer in Beaufort, produce is harvested, packaged and delivered to the agencies to be distributed to the hungry. We even have a dedicated plot of land that supplements our fresh produce offerings.
We also purchase food from a foodservice distributor and deliver produce, protein and many other items to our agencies.
When grant funds are available, we partner with our local food donors to purchase fruits and vegetables at discount prices.
FILL THE NEED
Fill the Need is a unique partnership between Second Helpings and Palmetto Breeze Transit. It was established to meet the needs of workers from surrounding rural communities who work on Hilton Head Island and Bluffton, and travel up to two hours each way. There are few food suppliers and no food pantries open when they return to their homes, and no local agency to serve them.
Every Thursday, 60 to 80 of the riders receive bags of groceries to supplement their family food expenses. Started in October 2017, this program celebrated its fifth anniversary in 2022. The volunteer teams that work at this very special food pantry represent community and business members. It is truly a "village" program.
Post-Vacation Food Donation (coming April 2023)
Hilton Head Island welcomes 2.5 million visitors each year. There are approximately 8,000 rental units on the island, and more than 75% of visitors arrive and depart by car. As these tourists leave on Saturday mornings, Second Helpings will offer them the opportunity to drop off food at a conveniently-located place on their way off the island.
Food collected will benefit the food-insecure on Hilton Head Island, and potentially throughout Beaufort County.
Where we work
Awards
National Charity of the Year 2018
Professional Golf Association (PGA) Tour
Affiliations & memberships
United Way Member Agency 2000
External reviews
Photos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of people within the organization's service area accessing food aid
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, Children and youth, Chronically ill people
Related Program
Food Rescue program
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
We serve the public indirectly by distributing food to food pantries and soup kitchens. We collect data from them: the average number of people they serve weekly.
Type and amount of food collected and distributed in pounds Type and quantity of food distributed , Number of individuals accessing our food, number of times people access our food
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Chronically ill people, Adults
Related Program
Food Rescue program
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
We collect the type and weight of food collected from each donor and the weight distributed to each agency. In 2023, we reached a major milestone: 50 million pounds of food rescued and distributed.
Number of meals served or provided
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, Children and youth, Chronically ill people
Related Program
Food Rescue program
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Our vision is to eliminate hunger and food waste from the communities we serve.
Our organization provides healthy food to those in our community who struggle with food insecurity as a consequence of low income or lack of access to food, and to supplement a typical low-income diet of starches with healthy foods.
In 2022, we rescued and distributed 3.2 million pounds of food, enabling our 50+ agency partners (principally food banks and food pantries) to provide more than 51,000 meals per week for the hungry in Beaufort, Jasper, and Hampton counties.
- We are working to better match food distributed to the agencies' underlying need, and expand the number of agencies we serve in areas where more food-insecure people live.
- We are working to increase the amount of food we rescue by identifying new food donors.
We also seek to partner with all our community members to reduce food waste.
- We are a partner and food ambassador of the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control campaign, "Don't Waste Food". Its goal is to cut food waste by half by 2030.
- We have committed to be a US Food Loss and Waste Champion, and we have pledged a 50% reduction in food loss and waste in our operations by 2030. We are focused on activities targeting the prevention of food loss and waste before it arises; recovering wholesome, otherwise wasted food for donation; and recycling of food waste.
- Beginning in April 2023, we will be rescuing food from Hilton Head Island tourists to benefit the local food-insecure population.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Our strategy is to increase the volume and quality of the food we collect and distribute it equitably to meet the greatest needs in our communities while partnering with our food donors to reduce food waste.
We operate four programs to help eliminate hunger in the South Carolina Lowcountry:
Food rescue - our teams of volunteers man eight refrigerated trucks and pick up food from 47 food donors (primarily grocery stores), most of them daily, to ensure that food goes to the hungry instead of being wasted. We partner with 54 local agencies, principally food pantries, soup kitchens and family programs throughout Beaufort, Jasper, and Hampton counties, to provide this food to our local hungry.
Healthy Food Initiative - as our food rescue yields a limited amount of produce, we work with farmers to grow fresh produce, and with wholesalers and food donors to purchase fresh produce and proteins at discount prices, to supplement the diets of our local hungry.
Fill the Need Program - Bus riders commute several hours per day from rural communities to work on Hilton Head Island and in Bluffton. By the time they arrive home, there are few food suppliers and no food pantries open, and no local agency to serve them. Working in partnership with Palmetto Breeze Transit, we provide commuters with bags of food every Thursday at the Palmetto Breeze transit station.
Tourist Food Rescue - Hilton Head receives more than one million visitors every year. We are collecting food that would have otherwise gone into a landfill at the end of their vacations, and providing it to local food-insecure residents of Hilton Head Island and Beaufort County.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We have eight refrigerated trucks and 468 volunteers. More than 300 of these volunteers participate in collecting food daily from fooddonors and distributing it to our 54 agency partners - food banks, soup kitchens, and family programs.
We have a program to solicit grants for the purchase of healthy food (fresh produce) at discount rates from local farms and produce wholesalers.
Our generous community has gotten behind our vision to eliminate hunger and food waste, and are helping us to "get the word out" to tourists to bring their food to us at the end of their vacation.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
We have increased our number of trucks and volunteers over the years, and the number of partner agencies we serve. We continue to grow, as does our community and those in need.
We have added healthy food choices to (fruits, vegetables, and protein) to rescued food, obtaining restricted grants for that purpose. During COVID-19, we also purchased food to supplement rescued food to feed a 30% increase in people coming to food banks and food pantries.
We created a program called FILL THE NEED, partnering with Palmetto Breeze to provide food to those who work on the island, live in "food deserts," and ride to work on the buses. We feel this is a small way we can help with the workforce shortage on Hilton Head Island. We, along with Palmetto Breeze, were recognized by the Hilton Head Island/Bluffton Chamber of Commerce as Organization of the Year. We have recruited business both on and off the island to volunteer on Thursdays to hand out food to those riding the buses.
We launched our tourist food rescue program, called "Post-Vacation Food Donation" in April 2022. We have generated interest from hundreds of rental units, and have added several thousand pounds of food to the amount we provide to the food-insecure in our community. This program has also become an important tool to raise the awareness of hunger among tourists and residents alike.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
SECOND HELPINGS
Board of directorsas of 02/15/2024
Mrs. Mary Ann Bell
N/A
Term: 2022 - 2024
Ted Stevenson
Community Volunteer
Anthony Berkant
Community Volunteer
David Eppinger
Community Volunteer
Robert Taylor
Community Volunteer
Charles Russ
Community Volunteer
Andrew Cook
Morgan Stanley
Audrey Hopkins Williams
Community Volunteer
Frank Pici
Community Volunteer
Michael Schwartzkopf
Community Volunteer
Mark A Schmidtke
Community Volunteer
Jeffrey Kravis
Community Volunteer
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as: