A lot has happened over the course of twenty-five years since the Erie News Now Food Drive began.
Our country experienced the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the recession in 2008 and the Covid-19 pandemic. But through it all, the Erie News Now and the Second Harvest Food Bank food drive continued.
Karen Seggi was the Executive Director of the Second Harvest Food bank for years until her retirement just months ago.
She helped launched the food drive in 2001 and has seen it grow and change through the years, but said the generosity has remained the same.
According to Seggi, “When the times get tough is when you see the good in people even more than we normally would, which is very humbling to me. I remember doing the food drive one time with Julie Eisenman and she did the crime beat which was a tough beat and we were at the food drive and it was so energizing and so exciting and she looked at me and she said ‘You know people really are good’, and I said ‘I know, I am so blessed I get to see the good in people every day.”‘
Seggi has seen people give trunk loads worth of food or even five dollars, and said every donations is important.
As Seggi recalled, “There was a car that was put together with duck tape and they opened up their trunk and they had a lot of food in there and I thought ‘Hey, you could probably use this’ and they said, ‘we have been there, we know what it’s like to not have enough and we just want to help other people’. So, you find that if you have experienced that, you understand it and you want to do more to help.”
Seggi said even though she is retired, she will be out volunteering on food drive day.