After a five-month pause, the Culinary Job Training (CJT) program is back at Second Helpings! Suspended in mid-March due to COVID-19 precautions, the program’s team has been hard at work planning a new version of the training, which prioritizes safety while still providing students with the same level of [...]
The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced nearly every aspect of Second Helpings’ operations from the changing food supply to the growing need for meals. This health crisis also changed our volunteer workforce. Many people chose to restrict their ventures outside the home, due to higher risk factors or other challenges. [...]
As we’ve stopped over recent days to mourn the appalling death of George Floyd and too many others, to listen, and to question the institutional injustices against people of color, we are reminded that the inequities in our society are pervasive. Food insecurity, the lack of access to enough [...]
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted nearly every aspect of our lives over the last several months. In many ways, the food sector is one of the hardest-hit corners of our economy. Empty grocery store shelves, closed restaurants, and canceled events are signs that even as cities begin to open [...]
“Normally” Second Helpings provides meals to community organizations – churches, shelters, community centers, after-school programs and many others share Second Helpings meals with their neighbors, clients and students. That’s happening during the coronavirus outbreak as well, but something kept haunting us – who was getting left behind during this [...]
In 2008, I was a new Second Helpings Board member. At my first board retreat we recognized that there was something wrong with a hunger relief system where the organizations responsible for the work didn’t know, understand, or talk to each other. From those discussions arose what would eventually [...]
For two decades, the Sahm family and their restaurants have supported Second Helpings. Yesterday, opened a new chapter in that relationship. It started with an email from Eddie Sahm at 2:07 Sunday morning. By Friday, Sahm’s Cafeteria in the OneAmerica tower had become Second Helpings’ first satellite kitchen, delivering [...]
Last Thursday was a day most of us will likely never forget. While Second Helpings had planned for weeks for the possibility of a COVID-19 outbreak, like everyone else in our society, even with plans in place, we were in untested waters. For more than two decades our charitable [...]
There are times when the world around us changes at a blistering speed. Thursday, March 12th was one of those days. Thursday, 5 p.m. The announcement of school closures Thursday evening was immediately followed by afterschool and other program cancellations. Thousands of meals that were prepared and ready to [...]
At Second Helpings we are keenly aware of the important role that Second Helpings plays in our community for 90 other local not-for-profit agencies and for the families who struggle with hunger each day. Food safety and sanitation practices are always at the forefront of our work at Second [...]