Golden Harvest trains partners to tackle growing food insecurity

AUGUSTA, Ga (WJBF)- Golden Harvest food bank is providing its annual recertification training this week for its hunger relief partners.

“And once a year we get them all together for pretty much a day long training where they get updates on federal regulations for different food streams like the Emergency Food Assistance Program,” explained Anna Hammond, the Director of Strategic Initiative and Innovation at Golden Harvest.

With 300 partners across 24 counties, this event trains new organizations in proper practices and gives a review and updates to veteran partners.

“They learn food safety. We go through a civil rights training and nondiscrimination training, as well as giving them some updates on funding opportunities,” said Hammond. “Today we’ll be talking about just SNAP basics to educate them on what that is so they can gear up for another year of serving the community.”

This is Tanya Barnhill-Turnley’s 4th year as a partner. She said the refresher courses are nice but she gets something more out of the training every year.

“For me is meeting all the other agencies because sometimes you feel like you’re in a silo and you might see them passing. We’re going to pick up stuff from the warehouse, but you really don’t get the chance to talk with them and share ideas because I’ve talked to a couple of people at my table giving me some ideas.”

With the expected increase in food insecurity because of budget and program cuts, Golden Harvest and its partners want to be ready.

“We know that seniors are the fastest growing population of food insecure people. So we have conversations internally that these budget cuts that are happening that impact programs that support food insecure neighbors or programs that support nonprofits like ourselves and our partners. And we are dedicated to continuing serving the community and responding to the need,” said Hammond.

Hammond added that it’s something the powers that be at Golden Harvest have been talking about and preparing for for a while.

“We are expecting there to be longer lines at our pantries. That’s conversations that we’re having today. On if these federal funding cuts happen and continue to happen. They’re going to be on the front lines and we’re going to be there alongside them to make sure that we can continue serving the community.”

Barnhill-Turnley told NewsChannel 6 that she is surprised by the recent trends she is seeing in who is using the food banks.

“It’s a growing problem. And for me, it didn’t just start with the budget cuts. I saw it about a year ago that the clientele again was changing. As they said in the presentation, in the training, a lot of those are older people, which for me I did not expect at least a bigger increase in that number. I assumed that it would be families,” she said.

To volunteer, become a partner, or get aid from Golden Harvest food bank, just visit their website HERE.