Second Helpings marks a record December in 2024

Every month, our team pulls together a report across our programs. December 2024 was a record December across our 26-year history in four metrics: pounds of food rescued, meals distributed, pounds of food re-directed, and volunteer hours.

December 2024 compared to the last two years:

So how did this record-breaking month come to be?

Our record December in pounds of food rescued can be attributed to a particularly big holiday season, explained Food Rescue & Transportation Director Jon Meinert. Around the winter holiday season, we receive the most requests to pick up food drives from corporations and other groups wanting to give back.

Across the foodservice industry, the holidays provide caterers, hotels, and other event spaces with full event schedules, which create more opportunities for there to be extra food to donate to Second Helpings. Moreover, when some of our colleagues in the food rescue space were closed over the holidays, they directed their partners to donate food to us that they could not take. Grocery stores pack the shelves knowing customers shop extra for holiday gatherings, which again provides more opportunity for overstocked food to be available for rescue.

While these things happen every December, 2024 seemed to bring all those factors together in much larger numbers. This record number of pounds rescued leads directly to a record month in terms of pounds of bulk food distributed to pantries and other partners, in addition to the prepared meals we deliver.

While the Food Rescue numbers came from doing even more of what happens every December, our Hunger Relief program can attribute the record December in meals distributed to a very specific addition.

We started partnering with Indianapolis’ new winter contingency shelter. This location received approximately 300 meals a day for most of December, explained Adriane Rios, our Director of Partner Relations.

December is often a quieter month in meal production because several partner organizations close around the winter holidays. This year, however, several partners had winter break programs where they asked for additional servings and that offset the numbers for those partners who didn’t have programming during the break.

These food metrics were possible to achieve with a record number of volunteer hours logged to help us get it all done.

Michelle Woodruff, our Manager of Volunteer Services, credits this number with a variety of changes and signs of growth. The growth of our programs has lead to adding more volunteer shifts in both food rescue and meal delivery. Our team has increased our volunteer recruitment efforts, speaking engagements, targeted advertising across our email and social media channels, and even our first volunteer recruitment billboard in December.

In addition, we have seen so much growth in returning volunteers, from individuals first coming as a guest of a recurring volunteer to setting their own recurring schedule; seeing a number of corporate volunteer groups come for multiple shifts, new high school groups, and growth in our community service volunteering program, as we have grown our relationship with case managers. Finally, our new volunteer database allows us to track all of these hours more accurately than we have in years past.

Chief Program Officer, Nora Spitznogle reflects, “While the numbers are astounding, the Second Helpings team is well-prepared to meet the needs of the community – we couldn’t do it without our generous donors and dedicated volunteers!”

Thank you to everyone who made this month, and every month of fighting hunger from all angles, possible.