Archive for the 'Agency Partner Profiles' Category

May 3, 2010

Second Harvest Provides Food Through a Mobile Pantry

Author: Erin Gray

On Friday April 2nd Second Harvest Food Bank set up a mobile pantry at a Tuskawilla United Methodist Church in the Casselberry area.

Earlier we had received a call from church representatives expressing the need for food in the area. Right across the street from the church is a school that has over 200 students receiving free/reduced lunches. Even though the church was not a partner agency, Second Harvest agreed to bring a truck with some staff members to volunteer their time.

The truck had 8 pallets of canned and dry food, two pallets of fruit and veggies, and 1 pallet of bread products. The pallets were arranged in the parking lot were the church members had set up a drive thru scenario. One person would sign in the people requesting food, and then the client would drive up to receive their order.

It was wonderful to see all the church volunteers that showed up to serve over 120 families in a three hour period.  Tuskawilla United Methodist ended up filling out an agency application and was recently accepted. We are very happy that they will be helping to alleviate hunger in their area on a weekly basis.

Photos from the day:

Erin Gray
Agency Relations Manager

March 22, 2010

Agency Spotlight – Calvary Outreach Center

Author: Erin Gray

We couldn’t accomplish our mission of fighting hunger in Central Florida without our partner agencies. The majority of our partners are food pantries of various types and sizes.

Calvary Outreach Center in Winter Park is one of our larger Food Pantries that serve around 2000 people a month.  Recently Calvary Outreach Center moved their location to the church grounds at Calvary Assembly.

The new location gives them a lot more room for their pantry and counseling services. They have also built a class room attached to the building, which they plan on using to teach their clients that use the pantry’s services.

Calvary is hosting the “Money for Food” course that the ADEPT program is offering.  Hosting the classes for his clients is helping them develop the new ways to stretch their food dollar even further.

It is great that Calvary is so willing to partner with us in new ways, beyond distributing food to the clients.

 

Every time we visit Calvary, Pastor Clint Wallace has some new data to share with us. Here’s his latest update:

“From 2005 thru 2009, thanks to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, Calvary’s Outreach Center and Transitions Ministry distributed 12,464 family bags of food, 13,494 homeless bag lunches, 9,177 hot lunches, and 1,982 thanksgiving turkeys .

With the average meal weighing 1.5 pounds, we estimate that in those 5 years, Calvary’s Outreach Center & Transitions Ministry distributed 74,505 pounds of food, translating to over 37 tons. Without Second Harvest we would have only distributed around 9 tons of food.”

Calvary Outreach Center, and all of our Partner Agencies are doing such a wonderful job in the fight against hunger in Central Florida.

Erin Gray
Agency Relations Manager

March 12, 2010

ADEPT: Helping Our Agencies Clients

Author: Erin Gray

We care about the organizational well-being of our agencies because without them, there would be no way Second Harvest Food Bank could provide food for more than 55,000 people each week right here in Central Florida.

At Second Harvest we offer an ADEPT (Agency Development Education Planning and Training) program that provides training to our partner agencies to help them with different aspects of running a nonprofit organization. While the classes are usually aimed directly at nonprofit agencies, we’ve recently decided to test a few classes with clients themselves. Each semester at Second Harvest we receive wonderful interns from UCF. Jen and Judith have been helping us out this semester and have been working hard on a new serise of classes geared specifically to the individuals that our partners serve.

The “Money for Food” classes are adapted from a successful program developed by the Wisconsin Nutrition Education program.

The goal is to help clients learn how they can become more food secure while only having limited incomes and resources. For example, do you know that there are complete listings of restaurant’s “Kids Eat Free” nights?
 
This series of classes are being taught at the Calvary Outreach Center, where Pastor Clint Wallace graciously donated their classroom space and helped recruit students from his pantry clients. The first of twelve classes was very successful as we had 12 clients in attendance. Great job, Jen and Judith and thank you Calvary Outreach Center!
 
Are you interested in coming to an ADEPT class? Check out the upcoming classes scheduled.

Erin Gray
Agency Relations Manager

March 9, 2010

Safe Food Handling

Author: Brady Koch

Nothing is more important at Second Harvest than ensuring that the food we provide is safe for consumption.  There are numerous ways that food can become unsafe throughout its life including improper storage, handling of food and contamination.

In an effort to combat these risk factors, each of our Partner Agencies is required to attend a Safe Staff Food Handler Certification Program. This training is developed by the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association and is the same training that is required by Florida law for public food service workers to complete.

The training is administered by a Florida Certified Professional Food Manager, who is also a staff member. The contents of the training address such topics as cleaning and sanitizing, controlling pests, food borne illnesses and the importance of personal hygiene.

The certification is valid for three years at which time the course must be repeated. By providing our Partner Agencies with basic food safety training we hope to provide them with as many preventative techniques as possible to minimize food safety risks and ensure the health and safety of the clientele receiving our food.

written by:
Whitney James, ADEPT & Special Projects Manager

February 24, 2010

Produce to the People

Author: Erin Gray

On January 30th, Second Harvest Food Bank and New Covenant Church participated in our Produce to the People Program. Through this partnership with New Covenant Church, we were able to provide more food to individuals in Orange County on this day. Since the church is located in a part of East Orange County where there are few food pantries, the food distributed was made available to many that normally would not receive it.

This was our sixth Produce to the People mobile drop that we have enlisted our partner agencies to be a part of. With this program, Second Harvest Food Bank drops off ten pallets of fruits, vegetables and bakery items at a mobile location. These items usually have a short shelve life span or are perishable. 

The majority of the produce we received was from the gleaning that the Society of St. Andrews volunteers collected. New Covenant Church received two pallets of potatoes and three pallets of oranges that were recently gleaned from farms. The remaining pallets for the agency’s distribution were two pallets of bottled juice and four pallets of assorted bread and bakery products.  

700+ families showed up at New Covenant for the normal Saturday distribution only to find that there were an additional 11 pallets of fresh items waiting for them to take home. Both New Covenant Church and its clients were extremely happy to be receiving this additional food.

Because of our Partnership with our Partner Agencies, donors and people like Society of St. Andrews, we were able be a part of the Fight to End Hunger.

Slideshow:

Erin Gray
Agency Relations Manager