Our History

In the Spring of 1978 Reverend Ken and Jean Horne, Reverend Ray and Marian Buchanan, and Reverend Jeff and Susan Allen, and their families, began praying daily for God’s guidance in beginning a shared ministry. Out of this period of intentional prayer a plan for an intentional Christian community dedicated to helping resolve the problem of world hunger is developed. This plan was presented to Bishop Kenneth Goodson of the Virginia Annual Conference of United Methodist Church in the Spring of 1979.

Bishop Goodsen appointed Ken and Ray to a "special appointment beyond the local church" so they could found The Society of St. Andrew in Big Island, Virginia. On June 8, 1979 Ken and Jean Horne and Ray and Marian Buchanan, and their children, moved into a farmhouse in Bedford County, Virginia. Their goal was to live in Christian community in order to model a lifestyle of Christian responsibility.

From 1979-1982 the Horne and Buchanan families shared all things in common as they modeled a simple lifestyle that rejected consumerism. They grew their own vegetables and raised sheep, chickens, and rabbits, etc. At the same time, Ray and Ken led workshops on responsible lifestyles and hunger issues.

By October, 1982 the two families had learned that the “simple lifestyle” was not so simple. The Hornes moved from the farm to a home in Bedford, Virginia. While Ken and Ray continued to lead workshops, they begin to consider taking regular church appointments again. However, at a hunger awareness workshop the led at Franktown United Methodist Church on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, a farmer named Butch Nottingham questioned Ken and Ray about the facts they presented regarding food waste. From the discussion that followed, the Potato Project was born. On June 3, 1983 George Wooten of W. E. Bailey Produce, Chadbourn, NC, donated a tractor-trailer load of sweet potatoes to the Society of St. Andrew. This first load of salvaged sweet potatoes was delivered to the Central Virginia Food Bank in Richmond.

Since that first load in 1983 the Society of St. Andrew’s Potato Project has distributed aver 330,000,000 pounds of food to America’s hungry. During this period, until 1990, the ministry operated out of a converted sheepshed on the farm in Big Island. A new building was constructed in 1990 to house the growing ministry. Also in 1990, as an offshoot of the Potato Project, The Society of St. Andrew began the Seed Potato Project to offer a hand-up to impoverished communities who wish to grow their own produce.

In 1985 the Society of St. Andrew launched Harvest of Hope, a gleaning and study camp for youth. The first event was held at Camp Occahannock-on-the-Bay, on Virginia’s Eastern Shore and was led by Rev. Rhonda VanDyke Colby. A major component of Harvest of Hope is field gleaning. As more and more people became exposed to gleaning, they wanted to introduce it to their own churches. As a result, the gleaning network was established in Virginia in 1988. Since then, gleaning has expanded dramatically.

In 1992 we opened a regional office in North Carolina, followed by regional offices in Texas and Florida in 1994 and 1995, respectively. In 1998 we launched the Hunger Relief Advocate Initiative in partnership with the General Commission on United Methodist Men that has led to gleaning operations today in more than 20 states.  In 2004 we opened a regional office in Alabama and in 2006 we opened an office in Mississippi.