Second Harvest of the Big Bend

Second Harvest of the Big Bend is a nonprofit charity started in 1982 to address the urgent problem of hunger in the community. Our mission is to feed hungry, food-insecure people in North Florida’s Big Bend region, and to educate and engage the community in the fight to end hunger. The food bank provides healthy food and other needed items for low-income and unemployed people to relieve situations of emergency and distress.

As the region’s primary source for charitable food, Second Harvest acts as a storage and distribution depot for over 149 smaller front-line agency partners (emergency food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, children’s homes, homes for the mentally disabled, and domestic violence shelters) in 17 Florida counties -11 counties in our Feeding America service area (Calhoun; Franklin; Gadsden; Gulf; Jackson; Jefferson; Leon; Liberty; Madison; Taylor; and Wakulla), plus 6 counties under agreement with other North Florida food banks. Five of our counties (Gadsden, Madison, Leon, Jackson, and Jefferson) are among Florida’s 10 most food-insecure.

In 2020 Second Harvest delivered about 15.2 million pounds of nutritious food, enough for about 12.6 million charitable meals given to people in need for no charge.

The minimum age requirement to volunteer in our active warehouse is 12 years of age. Age restrictions vary by volunteer activity; please check the volunteer calendar. Children between the ages of 12-15 must be accompanied by an adult who is also volunteering and is 18 years of age or older. A minimum of one chaperone per four children is required.