Second Harvest Food Bank: Remaining vigilant with food, water, cleaning supplies

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

Preparing for hurricane season is second nature for Second Harvest Food Bank, an affiliated ministry of the Archdiocese of New Orleans that provides food for needy families in 23 civil parishes across south Louisiana.

Natalie Jayroe, president and chief executive officer of Second Harvest, says responding to every storm has been a learning experience.

“It’s really simple for us because we've been through it so many times,” Jayroe said. “It’s water, nonperishable foods and snack foods that people can use when the power goes out. And then there are the cleaning supplies. We know in any situation with a hurricane where there's water and flooding, the secondary thing that people need to be able to do is clean their homes and get back to normal. So we start months in advance laying aside those supplies.”

Emergency boxes filled

Just last week, Second Harvest volunteers packed 1,000 boxes through a donation from Abbott Laboratories, with the contents of each box capable of feeding a family of three for three to five days.

“Those boxes are very specific in that they have very nutrition-dense foods like Pedialyte and PediaSure and Ensure and protein bars,” Jayroe said. “We also make sure we have on hand some food for our most vulnerable neighbors in case they are affected by a disaster. If we don't need the boxes and another community nearby does, we send them. But it's something we hold here in our warehouse during hurricane season, so we're ready to go.”

First in line for power

Jayroe said the Second Harvest kitchen also is ready to produce meals.

“We test our generators on an ongoing basis, but we make sure we've got plenty of diesel fuel in our generators so that we've got the full three-day supply,” she said. “We make sure that we're ‘priority’ restoration for utilities, because even though we have generators, we still need fuel for the generators.”

Second Harvest’s staff members understand they are considered “first responders,” so they have the responsibility of reporting to work within 24 hours of a storm making landfall.

“Basically, as soon as it's safe for us to put our trucks back on the road, we are there,” Jayroe said.

Jayroe also recommends that families that are regularly served by Second Harvest pre-register for “disaster” SNAP so that if a hurricane does hit, “our neighbors throughout south Louisiana are positioned to get that disaster SNAP as soon as they can.”

Expanded sleeping facilities

Second Harvest’s upgraded warehouse facilities include showers and spaces that can be turned into dormitories for staff and first responders.

“In a recent hurricane, 15 of our staff members were homeless, but they were working the day after the storm,” Jayroe said. “We need to make sure that we're ready to house them in a worst-case scenario. Having showers in addition to the spaces where we can put cots up and having a working kitchen and generators that keep our utilities going is a great blessing.”