5th Sunday offering was pushed back to the first week of December to do the holidays.
Kristen Reedy, the Program Director from Second Harvest Food Bank will be our 5ths Sunday guest on 7 December. If you cannot attend then donations can be electronically via PayPal on HVUUC’s website at https://hvuuc.org/donate and designate special instructions that it’s for 5th Sunday.
More About Second Harvest
The mission of Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee is simple yet vital. It is to bring hope to our neighbors facing hunger by ensuring they have nourishing food when they need it most. We refuse to let hunger win.
To meet this goal, each month we serve up to 37,000 thousand food insecure neighbors across Washington, Sullivan, Carter, Hancock, Hawkins, Unicoi, Greene, and Johnson counties. In FY 25 we distributed nearly 14 million pounds of food through more than 300 food distribution points, including104 partner agencies, 74 mobile distribution sites, 120 Backpacks for Kids schools and 39 Summer Feeding sites
Our direct service programs include Mobile Food Pantries, bringing food directly to underserved communities without access to traditional pantries or agencies. We provide shelf stable goods, produce and protein to neighbors each month through these sites.
We also provide delivery to 185 homebound seniors through our Senior Home Delivery program. For many, our outreach person is their only weekly contact turning deliveries into vital “well-check” visits.
Children are our most vulnerable population, one in five children in our region is food insecure and we have two direct service programs to meet their needs. The Backpacks for Kids program works with schools to identify children at risk of hunger. These students receive backpacks twice a month filled with ready-to-eat meals and snacks—food they can count on after school, over the weekend, and during school breaks. For many of these children, when they leave school on Friday afternoon, they will not eat another meal until they return on Monday morning.
Summer is a difficult time for families struggling with food insecurity due to the absence of meals provided for children while they are in school and this program helps meet that need. This past summer our Summer Feeding Program provided over 300,000 meals for students across all 8 counties and on site at Second Harvest. Families with children 18 and younger received three prepared meals, a 7-day meal box of shelf stable goods along with protein and produce for each child in their household
The impact of these programs goes far beyond full stomachs. When children are free from the anxiety of hunger, they can grow, learn, and thrive. Our Food for Kids programs fuel healthy bodies and strong minds, helping to break the cycle of poverty by giving children the foundation they need to succeed.
For every $1 donated, Second Harvest can provide 3 meals. In FY 2025 that was almost 12 million meals. With 94% of every dollar going directly to community programs, ypur support makes a tangible difference,
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Hunger is not just an empty stomach—it is a barrier to hope, health, and opportunity. At Second Harvest we deliver more than meals—we deliver dignity, relief, and a chance for a better tomorrow. We refuse to let hunger win
We encourage you to join us - advocate, volunteer or donate. Be the reason a neighbor does not go to bed hungry tonight. Together, we can turn compassion into action and make hunger one less worry for thousands of families. Because when we feed hope, we change lives.