Harvest Hope Food Bank is South Carolina's largest food bank. Founded in Columbia in 1981 by business leaders and members of the faith community, it now distributes millions of pounds of food to about 687,000 people a year across 20 counties spanning the Midlands, Upstate, and Pee Dee regions. Erinn Rowe became CEO in 2021, after five years on the board including a term as chair. Harvest Hope holds a four-star Charity Navigator rating.
Harvest Hope sources food at scale and distributes it across 20 counties through partner agencies and its own programs, operating from hubs in Columbia and the regions it serves. As the largest food bank in the state, it carries a big share of South Carolina’s emergency food capacity, reaching from the Midlands around Columbia up into the Upstate and east into the Pee Dee.
Erinn Rowe became CEO in 2021, an unusual path in that she came to the role from the organization’s own board, where she had served for five years including as chair. That insider knowledge helped her step into leadership of the state’s largest food bank, which she has guided through sustained high demand. Under her, Harvest Hope holds a four-star Charity Navigator rating.
The 20-county service area covers a wide band of South Carolina: the Midlands around Columbia, part of the Upstate, and the Pee Dee region to the east. It mixes the state capital with rural counties that include some of South Carolina’s poorest communities, where food insecurity is persistent and grocery access is thin.
Yes. Harvest Hope Food Bank is a registered 501(c)(3) and a Feeding America member with a four-star Charity Navigator rating, the highest available. Bulk buying and donated food mean a gift produces many meals.
Donations and volunteer shifts run through harvesthope.org. Volunteers sort and pack food and help at distributions, and cash gifts go furthest because of the food bank’s purchasing power.
Harvest Hope is the largest food bank in South Carolina, covering the Midlands, Upstate, and Pee Dee, while the Lowcountry Food Bank covers the coastal counties around Charleston. For anyone in Columbia or central and upstate South Carolina, Harvest Hope is the lead organization.
Agencies across 20 counties receive food.
Food brought into rural and underserved communities.
School and weekend food support for kids at risk of hunger.
Food assistance for older adults on fixed incomes.
Sources: Harvest Hope Food Bank website (harvesthope.org), Charity Navigator and ProPublica (EIN 57-0725560), and University of South Carolina coverage of CEO Erinn Rowe. We are not affiliated with Harvest Hope Food Bank and receive no compensation for this listing. Spotted an error? [email protected]
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