Lowcountry Food Bank

Frequently Asked Questions

We hear a lot of questions throughout the year at the Lowcountry Food Bank. The following are some of the most common and most frequently asked questions. Click on the question for the answer.

  1. What does the Lowcountry Food Bank do exactly?
  2. How does the Lowcountry Food Bank get food?
  3. Who do you serve?
  4. What kinds of services do you offer?
  5. Do you give food to individuals?
  6. Do you deliver?
  7. What is the impact of hunger in the Lowcountry?
  8. What is the Food Bank's new role in USDA (public) food distribution?
  9. How many people in the U.S. are at-risk of being hungry?
  10. Who benefits from the Lowcountry Food Bank?


1. What does the Lowcountry Food Bank do exactly?
The Lowcountry Food Bank is a collaboration of local, non-profit human and social service providers, religious organizations, donors from the food industry, corporate, government, civic and private sectors, and individual volunteers whose support and partnership focuses on feeding the poor and hungry of the ten coastal counties in South Carolina. The Lowcountry Food Bank is the only major clearinghouse for donated food products in this area, where 25%-28% of the population lives in poverty.

The Lowcountry Food Bank collects, inspects, maintains, and distributes otherwise wasted food products from manufacturers, food distributors, the government, supermarkets, wholesalers and farmers, and redistributes these food products to a grassroots network of member agencies serving those in need. The Food Bank also offers resources such as nutrition education, safe food handling practices and maintenance information.
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2. How does the Lowcountry Food Bank get food?
Did you know that 27% of our national food supply is thrown away every year? According to the Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy, more than one quarter of this most precious resource is wasted because of cosmetic damages, mislabeling, weight errors and overproduction.

The Lowcountry Food Bank reclaims this food (otherwise destined for landfills) for the hungry by serving as a clearinghouse for donations of this food from grocery stores, distributors, manufacturers, and local farmers. We also receive a good portion of our food through the generosity of individuals, businesses, and civic organizations that sponsor community food drives. In addition, through our gleaning projects, farmers allow our volunteers to gather on local farmlands, where they collect fresh produce neglected by commercial harvesting methods. Once the product arrives at the Lowcountry Food Bank's distribution center in Charleston, it is sorted and distributed by staff and volunteers.
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3. Who do you serve?
The myth that hunger in America affects only the homeless, or people living in the most remote and impoverished locales is not the case. The typical person suffering from food insecurity in coastal South Carolina is not necessarily a homeless or jobless individual. They are parents working more than one job to try and support their families, senior citizens trying to cope with the rising cost of medical care and prescription drugs, and children relying on after-school feeding programs for their meals.

The LCFB serves any non-profit charity or faith-based organization in the ten-county Lowcountry area. To qualify, an agency must prove its nonprofit status and agree to provide free food to all needy citizens. All member agencies enter into a contractual agreement to distribute food and/or provide food free of charge without regard for "race, creed, national origin, religious affiliation, sex, sexual orientation, age or handicap." In efforts to serve the Latino/Latina community, the Food Bank plans to disseminate TEFAP informational/application forms in Spanish and to offer bi-lingual informational/application forms for potential Latino/Latina member agencies. These initiatives are part of our core goals for 2004.

The Lowcountry Food Bank provides food-related services and programs to:
- Seniors living on fixed incomes
- Single-parent families
- Hard-working, low-income couples
- Physically and developmentally disabled children and adults
- Victims of personal tragedy (fire, loss of job)
- As well as others suffering from hunger and malnutrition
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4. What kinds of services do you offer?
The Lowcountry Food Bank provides the following scope of services. Please visit our Scope of Services page for more detailed information.
Our Services include the following:

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5. Do you give food to individuals?
We do not provide food directly to individuals. We provide food to a wide network of organizations that in turn feed the hungry. These agencies represent more than 400 churches, homeless shelters, orphanages, food pantries, soup kitchens and other community service groups. However, we do work with individuals to help them find emergency food assistance.

You can call the Lowcountry Food Bank (843-747-8146) or click here to search for emergency food and shelter services in your area
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6. Do you deliver?
The Lowcountry Food Bank's membership has grown from 184 member agencies in 2000 to more than 415agencies in 2004. Many of our member agencies reside more than one hours away from our center of operation and cannot afford to come to Charleston. In response, we began doing rural drop shipments in Myrtle Beach and Kingstree in January of 1999. Since June of 2000, our Beaufort County Branch in Yemassee (North Beaufort County) has been serving the communities of Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton, and Jasper Counties. As of June 2002, we operate a new branch in Myrtle Beach; the Grand Strand Branch serves the communities in Horry and Georgetown Counties.
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7. What is the impact of hunger in the Lowcountry?
Living in coastal South Carolina, we enjoy a landscape rich in fertile soil, a temperate climate and abundant farmland. However, we also serve some of the poorest counties in the nation; as much as 30% of the population lives in poverty. According to the 2002 Hunger and Homelessness Study report by the US Conference of Mayors, requests for emergency food services increased by 3% this year in Charleston; 69% of all individuals requesting food were employed. Kids Count data from the Anna E. Casey Foundation also underscores the heightened need in our community. South Carolina ranks 48th in the nation with low birth weight babies; 44th (30%) in the number of single-parent families; and 45th (26%) in the number of children living in poverty.

According to the South Carolina Community Profile's 1990-2000 Poverty Comparisons, 146,074 individuals lived below poverty within the LCFB's ten-county service area; that's nearly 27% of the total South Carolina population. Individuals over 65 made up 23% (15,029 individuals) of the total population living in poverty. Over 30,000 out of 115,899 families in South Carolina lived in poverty in the Lowcountry- more than 26% of the total family population. According to raw data from the 2000 Census, the Lowcountry has the fastest increasing Latino/Latina population in the state, growing by as much as 7% in Jasper and Beaufort counties alone. This population is largely representative of migrant farm-workers and low-paid seasonal employees of the tourism industry. In the Lowcountry, more than half of the poor are single-parent families, headed by working females.
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8. What is the Food Bank's new role in USDA (public) food distribution?
The Lowcountry Food Bank is fully committed to addressing the root causes of hunger in its communities. For many years, the organization focused its advocacy efforts on the formidable task of USDA reform. Until June 1, 2000, the South Carolina Department of Social Services stored public food commodities in corporate warehouses in Columbia. The government distributed this food from trucks parked in shopping malls and other locations throughout the state only four days out of the year (one day each quarter). The paperwork was also prohibitive, especially in the poorest communities where many people lack reading and writing skills.

Because of these barriers, much of the food expired in storage at the expense of the taxpayer. In response, the Department of Social Services contracted the three food banks in South Carolina to manage and distribute public food commodities. The South Carolina State Association of Food Banks, of which the Lowcountry Food Bank is a lead member, had advocated this arrangement for more than ten years. Its benefits to the citizens of this state are groundbreaking: public food commodities (often our most valuable and nutritious items) are available to the poor and hungry seven days a week instead of four days a year. In addition, because all public food commodities are distributed, the state does not forfeit federal block grant monies allocated for public food distribution. Furthermore, as nonprofits, the food banks do not charge for storage (but only receive a portion of federal block funds for distribution), a significant savings to the taxpayer. The Lowcountry Food Bank distributes this food, free of charge, to nonprofit agencies throughout the Lowcountry; paperwork is reduced to a 3"x 5" index card.
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9. How many people in the U.S. are at-risk of being hungry?
According to the Hunger in America 2001 study of America's Second Harvest nation-wide network of food banks, their network of food banks provide emergency hunger relief services to an estimated 23.3 million low-income people, or roughly 9% of all Americans. Click here to view the Hunger in America 2001 study.
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10. Who benefits from the Lowcountry Food Bank?
In a word, Everyone.
The Lowcountry Food Bank witnesses the real strength of its mission in the vital bridges that it builds between local industry and community service organizations. Millions of pounds of precious resources are reclaimed and redistributed to areas of greatest need each year. Local businesses and farmers save dumping fees and earn a tax deduction. The retail value of food distributed through the Lowcountry Food Bank was over $16,500,000 in 2003, using Peat Marwick's assessment of the $1.58 per-pound value for food distributed through America's food banks.

As a result, human service organizations collectively save millions of dollars each year on grocery bills. For example, a local orphanage saved an estimated $70,000 last year in groceries and related products as one of the Lowcountry Food Bank's partner agencies. This funding is reinvested in clothing, education, shelter and other basic necessities.

If you have a question you would like to ask of the Lowcountry Food Bank, click here!
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