Hurricane Helene worsens Valdosta's food insecurity, Second Harvest bridges gap

• Over 20,000 people in Lowndes County suffered from food insecurity prior to Hurricane Helene.
• 25.3% of the food insecure are children.
• Watch the video to hear from neighbors who have difficulties accessing food during recovery.

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT

Karen Carson-Cook has been through hurricane recovery.

"I've been here since Hurricane Andrew blew me here in 1992."

She also went through spells of hunger when she was growing up.

"As a child we, we were struggling for a while so. Yes, I, I, I know how it is to be without or to have rationals coming to you and you have other siblings that need to eat."

And now, despite having her own neighborhood damaged by Helene, she is out helping Second Harvest and making sure her fellow Valdostans are fed.

"I do know as a PE teacher, as a dance teacher, and now as a college readiness teacher, that if you are not properly fed, if you're not eating right, then your whole being is off."

And after Second Harvest's latest food distribution, 900 families are properly fed, any least for the time being.

Food insecurity in Valdosta was already an issue before Helene's destruction; 25.3% of area children and 1 in 5 adults experienced food insecurity.

Janna Luke, Second Harvest's director of development, tells me the lack of power and blocked roads makes keeping Valdosta fed extra difficult.

"It's hard to get to where you need to go to get the food you need. The deliveries aren't being made to the to the location where the where the disaster is made either. So you've got to you've got to make what you have stretched further."

The best way to help? Kare tells me...

"Go spread the love."

The South Georgia region still sees the highest level of hunger in the state. In Valdosta, I'm Malia Thomas, reporting for ABC27.