Second Harvest of South Georgia to feed thousands ahead of Thanksgiving

VALDOSTA, Ga. (WALB) - Second Harvest of South Georgia is hosting one of its biggest food drive events in Thomasville and Valdosta during Thanksgiving 2023.

Second Harvest is hosting its annual Thanksgiving Thousands event, but they’re in need of more volunteers.

“It’s truly important to make sure that households have the food that they need, the nutrition that they need. Particularly with kids being out of school for the holidays— they don’t have that free reduced lunch and breakfast that some rely on. So we’ve got to make sure that families have what they need,” Eliza McCall, chief programming officer for Second Harvest of South Georgia, said.

For the event in Valdosta on Wednesday, Nov. 22nd, they have over 100 volunteers. But for Monday, November 20th in Thomasville, they need at least 80 more volunteers.

“It is truly a meaningful experience to be able to help these families. We rely so much on volunteers because we run a very small staff for the scale of what we do. So in order for us to serve the number of people we need to serve, the volunteers make a huge difference in that,” McCall, said.

Food boxes will include things like fruits, vegetables, proteins, pasta, soups, etc. and they may slightly differ from Valdosta to Thomasville.

The Valdosta drive will be held at Valdosta High School and the Thomasville drive will be held at Thomas County Central— both starting at 7:30am. No ID or proof of income is required. They just ask that you do not line up on SCHOOL PROPERTY until 5:30am.