I arrived to South Carolina from New Jersey last summer and began to see too many hungry children on Hilton Head Island. What saddened me most was what I saw with my soul. These little one's did not only have empty stomachs, they had empty eyes, void of a child’s twinkle. My only desire was serve those who Hunger for food, water, and a renewed spirit! Why? Because Hunger Pains deny dignity: lessen human energy and thus one’s potential. Hunger erodes the family, the community and it’s stability, making it near to impossible for those struggling to achieve independence. To break this cycle of hunger, I opened the Sandalwood Community Food Pantry & Resource Center, committed to providing an efficient, cost effective centralized system for collecting and distributing food that reduces waste and alleviates hunger on the Island of Hilton Head, where the poorest of poor are hidden behind lush golf courses and luxury ocean villas. I have been blessed by our Creator and given eyes to see beauty, even when it’s not pretty, every day, and to nurture and nourish my own life from its presence.We opened on February 17, 2009 and feed over 300 families and growing as we seek to provide food to those in need and to silence the pain that hunger brings. The Low Country Food Bank has approved our pantry as a quality agency and given us the opportunity to feed the poorest of poor in a place where no one seems to want to go. Recently we were approved for USDA product distribution and this has lightened the end of month burden most find themselves in with regard to their minimal food stamps.
This place, once forgotten, where death by violence was a reality and drugs replaced food has become a community that is healing, because people, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out.
