Georgia Magazine - October 2024 - 38

Hometown HEROES
By Amber Lanier Nagle
T
Eliza McCall
battles food
insecurity on all
fronts
o say that Eliza McCall of Valdosta is a skilled, capable
multitasker is an understatement. As chief programming
offi cer for Valdosta-based Second Harvest of South
Georgia (SHSG), the largest rural food bank in the state, she works
tirelessly to address numerous factors impacting food insecurity.
" We are a large-scale operation serving 26 counties in a
12,000-square-mile region-from the Okefenokee Swamp over
to Alabama and up to Plains, " McCall says. " It's a logistically
complex [undertaking], distributing 24 million pounds of food
annually, as well as sponsoring programs like Hungry at Home,
[the] Senior Box Program and Teacher's Harvest, but we do
whatever it takes to make sure our neighbors are taken care of. "
McCall's tasks and responsibilities fl uctuate widely between
the grassroots and big-picture levels. To demonstrate this
necessary agility, she points to a week in 2015. Wearing her best
suit with high-heeled shoes and a strand of pearls, McCall found
herself at the White House Rural Council in Washington, D.C.,
to discuss how childhood poverty relates to hunger and
malnutrition. Two days later, she was back on her home turf
hefting boxes of canned goods into the back of a pickup truck.
She cites another crazy day the following year.
" One minute I was scrubbing toilets, and the next minute I
was meeting the former leader of the free world, " she says,
laughing. " [Former President] Jimmy Carter's church, Maranatha
Baptist Church in Plains, is an SHSG partner agency, and the
Carters helped us with a fundraiser that day. "
Last year, she was appointed to Feeding America's Policy
Engagement and Advocacy Committee (PEAC), which represents
people facing hunger and 199 food banks nationwide that are
members of the Feeding America network. McCall is one of
23 committee members.
" We co-develop national public-policy priorities and
advocacy strategies, " she says. " We meet with lawmakers and
U.S. Department of Agriculture offi cials, prepare reports and
speak at public events-all to help shape laws that will make it
easier for food banks to carry out their mission. "
In this capacity, she was back in Washington, D.C., earlier
this year, to urge members of Congress to support and strengthen
federal nutrition programs in the Farm Bill, the centerpiece
federal legislation for food and farming.
" We need investments in [federal] programs like the
Food insecurity aff ects every community in the nation. Feeding
America's Map the Meal Gap study, map.feedingamerica.org,
is a powerful tool to understand local impact. Key fi ndings from
this study include:
* Georgia had an average food insecurity rate of 13.1 percent
in 2022 (about 1.4 million people).
* Rural counties experience higher levels of food insecurity
than do urban areas.
* Eight out of 10 counties with high food insecurity rates are in
the South, indicating regional disparities.
* Food insecurity rates among children can reach almost
50 percent in some counties.
38 Georgia Magazine October 2024
Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to help children, families
and seniors, especially those living in rural communities like
ours, " she says.
Th ese days, McCall and her team are busy with disaster
relief eff orts in the wake of Tropical Storm Debby and are raising
$25 million to build a much-needed, larger facility in Valdosta.
McCall believes that no task is too humble nor too grand in
the pursuit of the greater good: helping people facing hunger.
" I love the people, and I love the work, " she says. " And I'll
continue to do whatever it takes. "
Amber Lanier Nagle is a freelance writer based in Adairsville.
JANNA LUKE PHOTOGRAPHY
http://map.feedingamerica.org
Georgia Magazine - October 2024

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