Archive for October, 2009

October 30, 2009

On the Road: Sharing our Successes

Author: Brady Koch

This week I’m attending Feeding America’s Agency Capacity, Programs and Nutrition Conference.

It is always reinvigorating to meet up with over 400 food bankers from across the nation and share notes in a face to face format. On Tuesday I got to sit in a panel for new food bankers and share our experiences on Childhood Hunger programs, Hi-Five, Summer Feeding, and Kids Café.

It feels rewarding to be able to share all of our best practices with people that were in the same position I was in a number of years ago.

 On Wednesday, I had a presentation about the cutting edge practices we use in our Benefits Connection food stamp outreach program. This program has been an overwhelming success for us and after nonstop consultations with other food bankers; I’m down to my last business card.

Thursday Nitza Colon, our Benefits Connection Manager, had another presentation about our outreach program that instructed other food banks how to start their own food stamp programs. At the general session that afternoon the speaker from Feeding America said that “Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida has turned food stamp outreach into an art form.” I feel like Picasso now.

Our Childhood Hunger manager, Santos Maldonado, and I received a plaque thanking us for our work as mentors for the Hi-five Kids pack program.

Accolades like this and being asked to speak at events such as this remind me how great Second Harvest is and how many other hunger relief agencies nationwide look to us as leaders in our field.

There is a lot more to our work than a warehouse full of food. Each of our programs strategically tackles a specific facet of hunger that may otherwise not be addressed. Now that our batteries are recharged, we can’t wait to come back to Orlando and implement some of the new ideas we’re learning about.

Holiday season’s one of the busiest times at Second Harvest and we’re ready to hit the ground running. If you’re interested in learning about any of our programs please feel free to contact me or anyone on my team.

Brady Koch
Director of Agency Relations & Programs
bkoch@foodbankcentralflorida.org

October 19, 2009

Produce to the People!

Author: Brady Koch

This past Saturday morning we piloted our Produce to the People program at Victory World Outreach in Maitland. The goal of Produce to the People is to deliver a truckload of produce directly to a community site where it will be handed our immediately by a team of volunteers from one of our partner feeding agencies. We wanted to focus on fresh produce for this program because that can be the most difficult for our clients to have access to on a limited budget.

For our pilot, we delivered two palates of cucumbers, two palates or corn, four palates of grapefruit juice, two palates of Grocery Alliance items, and two palates of apple slices. It was a chilly morning, but Victory World Outreach estimates that they served a little over 200 people.

Volunteers were the key to success. There were at least 16 volunteer on hand. They had an assembly line set up that would make Henry Ford proud. In addition to handing out food, volunteers would help people to their cars, talk to people in the waiting line, and direct traffic. 

Thanks to everyone who helped organize this event. Big thanks to Victory World Outreach. They went way above and beyond in organizing the distribution. This Saturday we’re in Kissimmee to try it all over again with some changes here and there.

We’ll be testing out this program two more times this month in Kissimmee and East Orange County. We’ll let you know how it goes!

Upcoming Produce to the People Pilots

October 24th
8:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.
Solid Rock
Church of God
1904 North Michigan Ave.
Kissimmee, Florida 34774

October 31st
8:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.
New Covenant Church of Central Florida
990 Belvedere Road
Orlando, Florida 32820

Below are some photos from the event:

 

October 13, 2009

Feeding the Community One Day at a Time

Author: Maria Diestro

I would like to share a testimony written by Andy Kimpel. I hope his story inspires you as much as it did me!

Maria Diestro
Online Services and Communications Manager  

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Feeding the Community One Day at a Time by Andy Kimpel

I work for a pallet company based in Orlando called CHEP. Why is that important you ask? Well, it’s where My Story really begins. I got involved with food banking a few years ago when I was asked to coordinate our company’s interaction with the national food bank organization called Feeding America.

At CHEP, our pallets help transport millions of pounds of food products every day and the link to food banking was, and is, a very logical one. However, I had no idea what food banking was or how it worked. I had even less knowledge about who was getting food assistance or how prevalent hunger was in my own community.

Literally hundreds of volunteer hours later, I now have a much deeper understanding of food banking and how necessary it is, especially in times like these. I have gone from relatively zero engagement to almost daily activity locally with Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida and nationally with the Feeding America team in Chicago.

I’ve found that the more I help, the more I want to help. SHFB of Central Florida is a member of the Feeding America network that includes 200 other food banks around the country. This insight at multiple levels is rare for someone outside of food banking operations and a better knowledge of the entire food bank supply chain gives me the ability to help even more effectively.

The local work I am doing has a direct impact on our community’s future. I have recruited friends and family into this effort and we know we are changing lives every day. Food helps people perform better in school and work, create new opportunities and provide hope in tough times. Food is a basic requirement for our survival and I believe we all need to work to ensure that everyone gets their fair share. It’s not about being righteous or moral or political or even having a higher purpose. Sometimes it is simply about helping someone to survive until tomorrow. That’s as basic as it gets. Helping people right here in Orlando is a big plus for my family and I. For us, this cannot be more of a win-win situation. By helping locally, I am actually improving my family’s quality of life by improving conditions in our schools and supporting our local economy.

At the national level, I am able to help coordinate truckload shipments of food into various food banks. I help food manufacturers and distributors understand how easy it is to donate and how we can all work to end hunger across the U.S. I also help numerous food banks across the country with the flow of goods and provide suggestions on how they can work most efficiently with food donors and with CHEP.

Most people reading this will never have to worry about where their next meal will come from. But thousands of people in our area will. And do. The current economy has boosted local food assistance needs up by 400 percent in some areas and I feel compelled to help. I’m not a banker, but maybe food assistance helped someone get their bills paid this month. I’m not a teacher, but maybe I helped someone pass the FCAT last spring. I’m not a doctor, but maybe I helped save a life today. All those maybes drive my efforts at the food bank.

Volunteering with SHFB of Central Florida has opened my eyes and made me aware that hunger is right here in our backyard. It has shown me that 24 percent of the people getting food assistance are children who need it to grow and thrive and keep our community moving forward. I have been given the opportunity to help solve the hunger problem and it is a really good feeling. That’s why I keep going back for seconds.

Article by Andy Kimpel
Posted by InsightMagazine

October 13, 2009

Three Years of Hi-Fives

Author: Brady Koch

This morning I’m finalizing a presentation about the success of our childhood hunger programs. At the end of the month, I’ll be sharing our best practices with a group of other Feeding America food banks interested in starting and maintaining their own childhood programs in their communities. Sometimes we get so caught up in the day-to-day aspects of our work that we forget to step back and see how far we’ve come.

Hi-Five is one of our many programs that other food banks across the nation have been interested in duplicating at their local sites. The Hi-Five Kids Pack program was launched three years ago to help children who may not have food at home on the weekends.

These packs of food are distributed at participating schools by teachers and councelors who are best able to identify at-risk students. The demand for this program has grown greatly since its creation. Here’s our yearly distribution for each school year since Hi-Five’s start:

• School Year 06/07: 13,300 kids packs
• School Year 07/08: 18,793 kids packs
• School Year 08/09: 25,745 kids packs

As evidenced by these numbers, and echoed by the schools that are asking for more help for their children, the problem of childhood hunger is growing. In Orange County alone the number of homeless children has increased 36% in the past year.

Orlando Sentinal Article: Number of Homeless Students Skyrockets in Central Florida

The good news is that we do have solutions to combat childhood hunger in our community. All of the programs we operate make an impact in the lives of children in need. 

A collection of Thank You cards from the kids at Killarney elementary, one of our Hi-Five Kids Pack Program Schools.

Please contact me if you want to learn more about how you can join us in the fight against hunger.

Brady Koch
Director of Agency Relations & Programs
Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida
407.295.1066 ext. 30
bkoch@foodbankcentralflorida.org

October 7, 2009

Portraits of Hunger Showcase Photos

Author: Maria Diestro

Our Portraits of Hunger Showcase took place on Wednesday, September 30 at Enzian’s Eden Bar.

It can be a bit unnerving not knowing who will actually show up to an event. Fortunately for us, the night was a huge success! Every seat at Eden Bar was taken. I got a chance to meet several of the photographers that submitted photos to our contest. I also got a chance to talk to some of the people that brought food donations. We are very thankful for the community support that we received that night.   

Note: We could not have pulled this event off without the help of Enzians’ staff. It seems so long ago when we actually talked about the event. They were truly a pleasure to work with.

Drumroll …

The 2009 Portraits of Hunger winner is G.K. Sharman for her photograph titled: Courage.

Top 3 photos were: Courage by G.K. Sharman, Loneliness by Bernard Juskie and Snack Time Smiles submitted by Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida, photographer Sharon Smith.

I’d like to thank our three judges for taking the time to vote for the winning photo and for participating this year. Our Contest Judges were Sara Van Arsdel, Executive Director of Orange County History Center; Josh Garrick, Media Rep & Curator for Millenia Fine Art and Dave Krepcho, President of Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.

If you didn’t get a chance to attend Portraits of Hunger, below is a slideshow of all the photos that were submitted to the contest. 

If you did attend, the slideshow below has photos taken from that night. Enjoy!

Thank you again for participating in Portraits of Hunger.  We look forward to bringing this event back next year.

If you have any suggestions on ways we can make this contest better or ways that we can improve on the showcase please leave us a comment below.

Maria Diestro
Online Services and Communications Manager