Mike Smith Makes a Difference

By Charlie Overton

The best kept secret of the United Methodist Church”— that’s how Mike Smith describes The Society of St. Andrew. A former president of the Holston Conference of United Methodist Men, Smith recalls his first encounter with SoSA at a 2008 national conference in Nashville. “I had never heard of SoSA”, he says, “but Wade (Wade Mays, national Meals for Millions coordinator) was there showing the SoSA video of sweet potatoes being dumped into the landfill.”

After finding out more ...

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Andy Lemmon Gets to Work

In April, three new and energetic program coordinators began their work with SoSA, coordinating volunteers to gather food for the hungry. Jewel Scruggs started work in Alabama, Kelsey King in Tennessee, and Andy Lemmon in Mississippi. Here, Andy reflects on the experience of discovering so many volunteers doing so much to help others:

Our farmers for this turnip-gleaning event work full-time jobs during the week and fill their “free time” with growing crops and maintaining their small farm. They have graciously donated the roots ...

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Hunger’s Devastating Effect on Our Seniors

By Jean Blish Siers *

A couple years ago, I visited a soup kitchen where one of my drivers delivers a lot of produce. Sandy, the kitchen manager, told me how much the fresh produce meant to them and to the neighbors they serve. It’s within walking distance of low-income senior housing and a lot of older folks stop in each day. Sandy said Fridays are particularly heartbreaking, when she’ll see elderly ladies wrapping up parts of a sandwich or a ...

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Backpack Buddies Delivers SoSA Food

On a special day in December, children in a number of elementary schools in St. Clair County, Alabama received fresh fruits and vegetables from the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama. The food bank received the apples and 18,000 pounds of sweet potatoes from the Society of St. Andrew. The food was distributed to 3,600 qualified students and families in the county.

This was a service of Backpack Buddies, a national program that provides children from food-insecure homes with healthy weekend meals ...

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The Incredible Edible “Expired” Food

Typical

By Jean Blish Siers *

I have a confession: I eat expired food. Sometimes it’s barely expired, like the yogurt I put on top of my farm-fresh strawberries. It might be a day or two past its sell-by date, but I give it a sniff and if it smells fine, that’s all I care about. Milk, too. Since we no longer have a teenager in the house, ...

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New Program Coordinators Head to the Fields

Three energetic new SoSA program coordinators are now working with farmers, volunteers, and feeding agencies across four states. All three met for training and to talk with staff at the national office in Big Island, Virginia in April.

They are all very busy at their jobs now, gleaning thousands of pounds of fresh food every week and distributing it to agencies that feed the hungry. We are happy to introduce our new SoSA representatives:

Kelsey King (Tennessee) is originally from Herndon, Virginia. She ...

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