We are so appreciative of everyone who showed their support for Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee during The Big Payback. Your gifts, shares and posts all helped to make for a great day fighting hunger in Middle Tennessee.

However, due to nationwide technical difficulties, The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee ended its 24-hour online giving campaign early on May 3.

“The great news is that we live in a very generous community, in a singularly generous country. The bad news is that this throng of giving overloaded the system nationwide,” said Ellen Lehman, president of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.

The Big Payback site is run by a national company named Kimbia, and it was serving 54 communities in this way today. “For example, Kimbia had six million gifts to process at one time between 9:15 and 9:45 a.m. That’s a staggering amount, which apparently, literally, staggered them,” she said.

While the day clearly did not go as planned, we are so grateful to all of our incredible supporters for hanging with us. If you were able to make a gift on May 3–whether on our website or via The Big Payback–THANK YOU!

If you did make a donation via The Big Payback, please ensure that you received a confirmation email and tax receipt for your donation and that your statement shows just one charge for the donation. As the donations were processed through The Community Foundation, please contact them directly if you have a question about your gift at 615-321-4939.

You can still make a difference in the lives of our neighbors in need every day of the year. Our mission is to feed hungry people and to work to solve hunger issues in our community, and the technical glitch will not put an end to our efforts!

We are grateful to live and serve in Middle Tennessee!