TIFTON — Second Harvest held a ribbon cutting to open the new Tifton facility, located at 164 Windy Hill Road, on Sept. 24.

Second Harvest will be located in two buildings totaling 50,000 square feet, which will store product slated for distribution in freezers, coolers, racks and shelving.

CEO and Director Frank Richards said that they are pleased to be located in Tifton and are looking forward to helping local organizations.

“The mission of Second Harvest and the work that we have to do here in the region is huge,” he said. “One in five South Georgians faces the issue of hunger every day. One in four children faces the issue of hunger every single day. Twenty-five percent of our veteran population and 15 percent of our active military that serve in South Georgia face the issue of hunger and poverty every day. These are things our organization works behind the scenes to make sure the over 400 non-profits we partner with every day have the resources to do the work that we need to do in our South Georgia communities.”

Richards said that hunger has an effect on the entire community, since it impacts the workforce, health care system, the development of children, the criminal justice system and the schools.

“All of these things go back to having food in the belly,” he said. “Because you cannot make good decisions, you cannot develop and you cannot move forward unless you have that food in the belly… We like to make sure we feed people every day to make sure they’re healthy, productive members of our community.”

Richards said that, in addition to the distribution center being located in Tifton being better logistically, the organization will be bringing programs to benefit the local area.

“Tifton is a great opportunity for Second Harvest,” Richards said. “Being right here on the I-75 corridor, it allows a great regional opportunity for us to serve in a multi-faceted programming opportunity here. It allows us access to all of our northern counties as well as our counties to the west and east.”

Richards said that they are going to be operating the Kid’s Cafe program, the senior box program, product recovery program and farm produce rescue program out of the Tifton location.