July 28, 2025 • 1 min
Kay Carter
Kay joined Second Harvest Food Bank as CEO in January of 2004. During Kay’s tenure at the
Food Bank the total pounds of food and household items distributed have increased from 7
million pounds to almost 90 million pounds annually.
Kay has established a set of key goals that have served as a guide for the staff as they work to
end hunger in the 24-county region of North and South Carolina served by Second Harvest.
Nutritional pounds including fresh produce, meat and dairy products have grown by 482%, an
average of 23% per year. Pounds in these categories, which people living in poverty can least
afford but need to stay healthy, are vitally Important in improving the overall health of
our community.
Volunteer hours at Second Harvest have increased by 44% per year since 2004. During the
most recent fiscal year, volunteer hours donated to Second Harvest totaled over 317,000.
These hours saved the Food Bank almost 8 million dollars in labor costs, funds that are being
redirected to feeding more people in need.
The number one goal of Second Harvest during Kay’s tenure has been to end child hunger in
our region. These programs including the backpack program, Kids Café programs and the
school based mobile pantry program have grown an average of 58% every year since 2004.
Today, Second Harvest is the largest nonprofit in the health and human services sector in the greater
Charlotte region with annual revenues including food donations of 171 million dollars.
Prior to joining Second Harvest, Kay served as the Director of the York County Department of
Social Services for seven years and as a City Manager for ten years. Kay holds a Bachelor’s
Degree in Political Science from Winthrop University anda Master’s Degree in Public
Administration from the University of South Carolina.
Second Harvest Food Bank
Who We Are and What We Do:
We provide a regional distribution warehouse and branches that supply food and grocery items to charitable agencies that assist people in need. We provide training, technical assistance and hunger education to our partner agencies.
Counties Served:
We serve a total of 24 counties - 14 counties in North Carolina including Anson, Burke, Cabarrus, Catawba, Cleveland, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Montgomery, Rowan, Rutherford, Stanly and Union. We serve 10 counties in South Carolina including Abbeville, Anderson, Cherokee, Greenwood, Lancaster, Oconee, Pickens, Spartanburg, Union, and York.
Agencies Served:
SHMETROLINA provides food for over 950 partner agencies including soup kitchens like Urban Ministries, emergency pantries like Nourish Up, homeless shelters like Uptown Men’s Shelter and Center of Hope, senior programs, and low-income daycares.
Food Distributed:
SHMETROLINA annually distributes over 88 million pounds of food and other household items throughout our 24 county service region. Over 54 million pounds of our annual distribution is fresh produce, meat and dairy.
The Need:
12.1% of our service area population, almost 483,000 people, live in poverty including over 151,000 children and 57,000 seniors. Our emergency pantries, soup kitchens and homeless shelters continue to report significant increases in requests for assistance over last year. These numbers do not incorporate our new counties in SC. Where Our Food Comes FromApproximately 68% of the food we distribute is donated, 12% is purchased and 20% of the food comes from government commodities. These numbers do not incorporate our new counties in SC.
How We Distribute Food:
We distribute food through our main warehouse in Charlotte and through branches in Hickory (Catawba County-NC), Salisbury (Rowan County-NC), Spartanburg (Spartanburg County-SC) and Anderson (Anderson County-SC).
Kay joined Second Harvest Food Bank as CEO in January of 2004. During Kay’s tenure at the
Food Bank the total pounds of food and household items distributed have increased from 7
million pounds to almost 90 million pounds annually.
Kay has established a set of key goals that have served as a guide for the staff as they work to
end hunger in the 24-county region of North and South Carolina served by Second Harvest.
Nutritional pounds including fresh produce, meat and dairy products have grown by 482%, an
average of 23% per year. Pounds in these categories, which people living in poverty can least
afford but need to stay healthy, are vitally Important in improving the overall health of
our community.
Volunteer hours at Second Harvest have increased by 44% per year since 2004. During the
most recent fiscal year, volunteer hours donated to Second Harvest totaled over 317,000.
These hours saved the Food Bank almost 8 million dollars in labor costs, funds that are being
redirected to feeding more people in need.
The number one goal of Second Harvest during Kay’s tenure has been to end child hunger in
our region. These programs including the backpack program, Kids Café programs and the
school based mobile pantry program have grown an average of 58% every year since 2004.
Today, Second Harvest is the largest nonprofit in the health and human services sector in the greater
Charlotte region with annual revenues including food donations of 171 million dollars.
Prior to joining Second Harvest, Kay served as the Director of the York County Department of
Social Services for seven years and as a City Manager for ten years. Kay holds a Bachelor’s
Degree in Political Science from Winthrop University anda Master’s Degree in Public
Administration from the University of South Carolina.
Second Harvest Food Bank
Who We Are and What We Do:
We provide a regional distribution warehouse and branches that supply food and grocery items to charitable agencies that assist people in need. We provide training, technical assistance and hunger education to our partner agencies.
Counties Served:
We serve a total of 24 counties - 14 counties in North Carolina including Anson, Burke, Cabarrus, Catawba, Cleveland, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Montgomery, Rowan, Rutherford, Stanly and Union. We serve 10 counties in South Carolina including Abbeville, Anderson, Cherokee, Greenwood, Lancaster, Oconee, Pickens, Spartanburg, Union, and York.
Agencies Served:
SHMETROLINA provides food for over 950 partner agencies including soup kitchens like Urban Ministries, emergency pantries like Nourish Up, homeless shelters like Uptown Men’s Shelter and Center of Hope, senior programs, and low-income daycares.
Food Distributed:
SHMETROLINA annually distributes over 88 million pounds of food and other household items throughout our 24 county service region. Over 54 million pounds of our annual distribution is fresh produce, meat and dairy.
The Need:
12.1% of our service area population, almost 483,000 people, live in poverty including over 151,000 children and 57,000 seniors. Our emergency pantries, soup kitchens and homeless shelters continue to report significant increases in requests for assistance over last year. These numbers do not incorporate our new counties in SC. Where Our Food Comes FromApproximately 68% of the food we distribute is donated, 12% is purchased and 20% of the food comes from government commodities. These numbers do not incorporate our new counties in SC.
How We Distribute Food:
We distribute food through our main warehouse in Charlotte and through branches in Hickory (Catawba County-NC), Salisbury (Rowan County-NC), Spartanburg (Spartanburg County-SC) and Anderson (Anderson County-SC).
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's iHeartMedia's CEOs. You should know this week talking with
Key Carter of Second Harvest Food Bank and Kay, you've
been here for a long time, and I know you
love coming in and talking about the great things that
Second Harvest does for our community.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Always love the opportunity to come and talk about Second Harvest.
Been there a long time now, almost twenty two years
as a ce Across our twenty four county region of
North and South Carolina. We have over five hundred thousand
people that live at or below the poverty level. The
saddest part of that for me always is about one
hundred and fifty one thousand of those are children. Another
(00:35):
fifty sixty thousand are seniors. But it's really just a
wonderful way to spend your time helping people every single day.
I highly recommend it.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Now, if you go to Second Harvest Food Bank's website,
you'll see three things. It says, give food, give money,
give time. How can we help with all three of those?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well, those are really the three things that we need
to keep operating. You know, food is kind of an
obvious one. You know, of course, we need funds. You know,
we have staff and expenses like that that we have
to raise money, you know, to pay for and so
financial donations are important. You can do that on the website.
And then of course volunteers. People are always asking how
(01:15):
can we help, How can we help? Whatever you can do.
I feel like if everybody would just do a little bit,
we could solve it.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Kay Carter, CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank, on iHeartMedia's
CEOs you should Know
It's iHeartMedia's CEOs. You should know this week talking with
Key Carter of Second Harvest Food Bank and Kay, you've
been here for a long time, and I know you
love coming in and talking about the great things that
Second Harvest does for our community.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Always love the opportunity to come and talk about Second Harvest.
Been there a long time now, almost twenty two years
as a ce Across our twenty four county region of
North and South Carolina. We have over five hundred thousand
people that live at or below the poverty level. The
saddest part of that for me always is about one
hundred and fifty one thousand of those are children. Another
(00:35):
fifty sixty thousand are seniors. But it's really just a
wonderful way to spend your time helping people every single day.
I highly recommend it.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Now, if you go to Second Harvest Food Bank's website,
you'll see three things. It says, give food, give money,
give time. How can we help with all three of those?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well, those are really the three things that we need
to keep operating. You know, food is kind of an
obvious one. You know, of course, we need funds. You know,
we have staff and expenses like that that we have
to raise money, you know, to pay for and so
financial donations are important. You can do that on the website.
And then of course volunteers. People are always asking how
(01:15):
can we help, How can we help? Whatever you can do.
I feel like if everybody would just do a little bit,
we could solve it.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Kay Carter, CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank, on iHeartMedia's
CEOs you should Know
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