For the third consecutive year, Second Harvest of South Georgia was named to the 2017 Feeding America Advocacy Hall of Fame.  The regional food bank was honored for its work to engage and mobilize elected officials and the community on policy issues around hunger in 2017.
 
To be selected for the Hall of Fame, food banks had to show extensive engagement with grassroots supporters, community and business leaders, state and federal legislative staff, elected officials and the local media.  42 of the 200 eligible Feeding America affiliate food banks nationwide were selected for this honor.  Of those included in the 2017 Hall of Fame class, less than half of those were primarily rural like Second Harvest.
 
“Advocacy is integral to our work in fighting rural hunger,” said Second Harvest Chief Marketing Officer Eliza McCall. “In order to create effective policy in Washington and Atlanta, elected officials need to hear from organizations like ours that have boots on the ground every day.”
 
Second Harvest emphasizes the necessity of rural advocacy in particular.  Because districts are drawn based on population, rural areas have fewer representatives at the federal and state levels.  For example, South Georgia has 3 congressional districts covering more than 20,000 square miles.  Comparatively, metro Atlanta has 7 districts in an area 1/3 of the size of South Georgia.  The food bank is planning to offer training for its partner agencies this year to help make it easier for the groups to get involved in advocacy.
 
“Rural citizens and organizations have to work twice as hard to make our voices heard because we have fewer folks to speak on our behalf,” said Second Harvest CEO Frank Richards. ”It’s crucial that each of us speak up on issues like hunger and poverty that are crippling Rural America.  It’s up to us.”