It’s Spooky to Be Hungry: We Give a Shirt
On October 1st, Golden Harvest Food Bank is launching its annual It’s Spooky to Be Hungry campaign, which has been a community tradition for more than 30 years.
Founded in 1992 by Evelyn Brown, an Augusta local, the campaign began in her neighborhood and grew through creativity, friendly competition, and community spirit. It became so popular she even trademarked the slogan. A few years later, just before she moved out of the CSRA, she sold the trademark to Golden Harvest for just $1, ensuring the mission would continue to help feed local families in need.
We talked to Abby Muehlfeld, the Vice President of Marketing at Golden Harvest Food Bank, about this year’s goals and previous campaigns. Prior to 2024, Golden Harvest was on a five-year track in which it met or exceeded the Spooky campaign’s fundraising and meals-provided goal each year. In 2024, Hurricane Helene hit at the end of September and upended life for many in Augusta and the surrounding area.
“For everybody, Hurricane Helene was extremely challenging,” Abby said, “but, out of darkness came light. Even when challenges arise, the community always steps up.”
Abby went on to tell us that neighbors rallied in the wake of Helene, and helped Golden Harvest distribute more than 2.4 million meals in that month alone - more than double the typical monthly impact.
Even in the face of rising food costs, It’s Spooky to Be Hungry has a goal for 2025 to raise $400,000 in financial support, in addition to canned goods donations, all to provide 1 million meals to local families heading into the holiday season. This campaign is timed to provide meals to an area of the country most in need.
Recently released Feed America food gap data identified Hancock County, one of the 24 counties that Golden Harvest serves, as the highest food gap county - for children specifically - in the United States. Several other CSRA counties were high on the list, making this year’s Spooky campaign goals even more important.
“It started as a wonderful, clever idea for fundraising,” said Abby, “This campaign is really about schools, businesses, and organizations using their creativity to make it what it is. It’s about the community coming together with healthy competition to raise food and donations for their neighbors.”
When asked about notable previous fundraisers for this campaign, Abby mentioned artists who have hosted silent auctions, students who’ve created campaign commercials, bakers who’ve crafted elaborate baked goods, local haunted house fundraisers, hay ride fundraisers, and even football-rival schools vying to out-donate each other.
The Golden Harvest team looks forward to all of the creative outlets this campaign provides and, in reviewing previous efforts, have brought something special out of the archives for 2025.
Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts who are looking to add a badge to their sash can email spooky@goldenharvestfoodbank.org to receive information and activities about the campaign and about the food gap issues faced by many of our neighbors. Scouts who start and complete a fundraiser to benefit It’s Spooky to Be Hungry can apply for a merit badge issued in partnership with Golden Harvest.
We personally love this campaign so much that we’ve ponied up. For the 30th annual It’s Spooky to be Hungry in 2022 our sister company, Wier / Stewart, designed the current version of the campaign’s logo. This year, for the 5th anniversary of We Give a Shirt, we’ve partnered with Golden Harvest to create a darling, slightly-spooky t-shirt design. $10 from each purchase will go towards the It’s Spooky to Be Hungry fundraising campaign.
The shirts are printed on our fan-favorite TriBlend t-shirt which wash and wear exceptionally well. This custom design will be available for 8 days and close on October 8th. We will produce the shirts and expect to ship them to be delivered to you before Halloween.
Stay spooky, help beat hunger in our community.
