Harvest Hope Food Bank is dedicated to ending hunger in Dillon County and works with faith partners, businesses and civic groups to identify pockets of poverty and hunger in the community.
Last fiscal year (from July 2012 to June 2013) Harvest Hope delivered more than 424,500 pounds of food in Dillon County to feed over 15,170 families struggling with hunger.  To assist in distributing food to the increasing numbers of hungry people across Dillon County, Harvest Hope partners with eight local member non-profit agencies coordinating efforts to provide food to Dillon residents at risk of continued hunger.
A new study finds that 89,010 people across Harvest Hope Food Bank’s eight county Pee Dee service area – including 26,530 children – do not always know where they will find their next meal. In all, 24 per cent of the population in Chesterfield, Clarendon, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Lee, Marlboro and Marion Counties struggle with hunger, according to research by Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization. More alarming is that 35 per cent of children in Dillon County live in continued food insecurity.
“Our hunger relief partners in Dillon County let us know the depth of hunger and food insecurity throughout their communities, and we truly understand the scope of Harvest Hope’s hunger relief mission in the area,” said Harvest Hope CEO Denise Holland. “With more than 89,000 people struggling to put food on their tables every day across the Pee Dee, you can see hunger is a reality in our communities, and how much everyone needs to do to feed our neighbors.”
Harvest Hope also works with local service agencies and faith partners to organize food distribution to Dillon County through our Mobile Food Pantries (MFP), and last year delivered 24,628 pounds of food to provide for over 1,600 Dillon County residents directly to their neighborhoods.  Harvest Hope fills designated MFP boxes with food, loads them on our refrigerated trucks and delivers them to scheduled sites in Dillon County  to deliver food to those most in need.
Visit the Map the Meal Gap interactive map with information specific to SC and Harvest Hope service area counties here: http://www.harvesthope.org/map-the-meal.
“Map the Meal Gap 2013” also shows:
– The weekly per person food budget shortfall in eight Pee Dee counties, meaning the amount of additional money that food-insecure individuals in the area said they would need to put enough food on the table each week for an adequate diet, is $13.99. The total Meal Gap across the entire Pee Dee eight county service area, or the amount it would take to insure residents have enough food to meet minimum daily needs, is $14,611,080.
-Harvest Hope dedicates 98¢ out of every dollar donated to providing hunger relief across 20 SC counties.