Eatonville Boys & Girls Club’s Kids Cafe welcomed over 120 youngsters with a hot afterschool meal on its opening day. The club sits in the heart of historic Eatonville; the nation’s oldest established African-American township. It is a stone’s throw from Hungerford Elementary and draws more than 200 students from nearby elementary, middle, and high schools.

Joyce Davis, who prepared  the meals, tell us that before Kids Cafe, children would receive small snacks consisting of bagels or cheese perhaps two or three times weekly, without regularity.

Second Harvest Food Bank, with the support of the Winter Park Health Foundation, has made it possible for these children to rely on a wholesome meal each and every day while school is in session. During the summer, Second Harvest will sponsor the club so that it may participate in the Summer Food Service Program which helps bridge the nutritional gap when children lack access to school cafeterias.

The club can now access a wide variety of food product from our main warehouse. Nutritional education will also be provided starting in early February.  Since children’s diets are generally a function of what happens at home, our hope is that the children will influence their parents by recounting what they learn at the club.  Menu tips, dietary guidelines and support will also be provided to the club’s cook.

We are extremely pleased with the first day’s turnout and expect a significant increase by week’s end.

Thanks to the Winter Park Health Foundation, Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida, Deb Watson, Austin Long, Rod Bargaineer, and Joyce Davis for their enthusiasm and support as we worked closely to make this happen!

View a map of our 13 Kids Cafes in 3 counties: Second Harvest Food Bank Kids Cafes >>

Photos from opening day:

Santos Maldonado
Childhood Hunger Manager

One of the most often-heard sentiments expressed at Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida these days is that ‘We’ve run out of space, but we haven’t run out of need.”

As the number of our neighbors who need help with food continues to remain at historic levels, it is essential that our community continue working to close the gap between the amount of food needed, and the amount available. The good news is that there is no shortage of ‘extra’ food resources in our society. That’s not the problem. The main challenges faced in our work today lie in creating adequate infrastructure to take more full advantage of the bountiful food that exists in Florida, and throughout our country.

We’re extremely proud of the growth and community impact that our current facility has made possible over the past sixteen years, but very mindful of the limitations of capacity that now exist. Sadly, nearly four million pounds of wholesome, nutritious food products are having to be turned away each year due to lack of adequate facilities.   

The vision of the “Building Solutions to Hunger” capital campaign involves elevating the future of hunger relief in Central Florida to a whole new level. Just as the additional capacity sixteen years ago allowed our organization to move from distributing six million pounds per year to today’s rate of 33 million pounds per year, the new 100,000 square foot facility  will allow for a similar quantum leap forward in service delivery to the community.

The Morgan & Morgan P.A. Hunger Relief Center at Second Harvest Food Bank is expected to return more than $1.4 Billion in food value for struggling individuals and families over the next two decades. The new facility will be located at the corner of Mercy Drive and Old Winter Garden Road in Orlando.

The $15 million campaign to create the new facility started in the closing months of 2010, and to date has garnered commitments for 67% of the needed funds to make this new vision of hunger relief a reality.  Because Second Harvest Food Bank is committed to the idea of not carrying any long-term debt or mortgage, however, we have committed ourselves to raising at least 80% of the needed funds before we will break ground on the project.

Clearly, we need more funds (and quickly) in order to begin construction. It is hoped that an additional $2 million in support can be received in the next 90 days in order to reach the important milestone of 80% funding. Our work must begin on schedule and without delay in order to maintain the momentum we need to get the project completed. Once finished in late 2012, additional food resources will begin flowing immediately to our 500 partner agencies in six counties. More children, seniors, homeless, and working poor families than ever before will receive the resources they need to live and to thrive.

Our deepest gratitude goes out to the visionary contributors who have lent their passion and support to this important project so far: Morgan & Morgan, P.A., Darden Restaurants, Walt Disney World, Dr. Phillips Charities, Baker Barrios Architects, CNL, the Morgridge Family Foundation, BHM Architects, JP Morgan Chase Bank, Bank of America, the Second Harvest Food Bank board of directors, Publix Supermarkets, Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation, the Golf Channel, Brasfield & Gorrie, Florida Hospital/Adventist Health Systems, and many others.

Your help is needed today. For more information on the Building Solutions to Hunger project and to learn how you can get involved and make a lasting difference, please visit http://www.ShowMercyNow.org. Significant naming/dedication opportunities remain available at this time, and gifts of any amount toward the vision of future hunger relief in Central Florida are greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Greg Higgerson, CFRE
Vice-President, Development

What could be better than an event encompassing wine, women, and shoes? Nothing in our eyes! Coming up on April 28, 2012 we will be holding our Second Annual Wine Women & Shoes Fundraising event at Rosen Shingle Creek.

For those of you who weren’t able to attend last year it’s an afternoon filled with fabulous fashion, delectable hors d’oeuvres, and of course sensational wine. The afternoon begins with shopping at designers and boutiques around the room as wine is poured and hors d’ oeuvres are tasted. “Shoe guys” float around the room and showcase shoes and other accessories on shiny silver platters.

After shopping women can peruse the silent auction and even get their make-up touched up! The grand finale of the day is the live auction offering once in a lifetime vacations and the fashion show highlighting this season’s latest trends.

After last year’s successful event our committee was extremely excited for the first meeting this year. With several returning members and some new faces the event is off to a great start!

The biggest news for this year: the fashion show is being sponsored and executed by the fashion mogul….Saks Fifth Avenue! We couldn’t be more excited to have them play such a huge role in Wine Women & Shoes this year.

Interested in attending the event or becoming a sponsor?

Please visit our webpage www.winewomenandshoes.com/orlando2012 for more details.

Jennifer Gibson
Events Specialist

One of the duties of Second Harvest’s Agency Relations Department is to not only monitor but make sure our partner agencies are receiving everything they need from us.  Our Agency Relations team thought it would be a good idea to volunteer with our agencies to get a different perspective of how the agencies serve their clients in need.

The first Agency Relations Coordinator to volunteer and write about this experience is Paula Assal.

Read about her experience below:

On Wednesday, January 4, 2012, I volunteered during the distribution at Apostolic Church of Jesus/West Orange. One of agency relations goals is to provide better customer service and to nurture the agency partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank.  Our hope is that by volunteering at the agencies I will not only have a better understanding of the agency needs but we can assist the agencies in a capacity that staff members haven’t experienced yet. It is as much of a learning experience for me as it is for the agency.

My time at Apostolic was spent talking to Stephanie, the pantry coordinator, assisting clients with the intake process, and restocking shelves. The intake process is not an easy job as many clients are reluctant to give their name and address for the paperwork needed. Each client that came was so happy to be blessed with what Apostolic could offer them by means of food and clothing. Some of the clients had difficulty filling out the form but each had a smile on their face as they left with their food. Patience and understanding is a big part of helping clients complete the forms.

It felt so good seeing each client come in with anticipation on their face and relief when they left knowing that if nothing else their families were going to eat that night. Afterwards, I helped restock shelves and date food product, no easy task as food is very heavy and keeping in mind rotating the food. When it was all over we had served 29 families in two hours. What a blessing to the community!

I look forward to the upcoming months to volunteer at different pantries and have similar but different experiences. I am so excited to be a part of the pantry process.

Paula Assal
Agency Relations Coordinator

One of the coolest things about my job is getting to meet all the different people that volunteer with us. We have quite a range of volunteer opportunities at Second Harvest. Our board members, committee members and event helpers are all volunteers. So besides important tasks like strategy, planning, and running the food bank’s mission, our volunteers spend lots of time sorting food at our Food Rescue Center.

On average, we can have close to 50 volunteers on a daily basis. This week alone, we have volunteers  from Universal Orlando, Marriott, Panera Bread, Nike Outlet, UCF, Walt Disney World and Dean, Ringers, Morton and Lawton helping out at our Food Rescue Center.

All of these volunteers come in to help us sort and pack up donations. They help us organize, check expiration dates and basically make sure that what is going out to our partner agencies is safe and of quality. I can’t imagine what we would do if we didn’t have these volunteers.

Last year alone, we had over 10,000 volunteers contribute more than 35,000 volunteer hours at the Food Bank. The estimated value of a volunteer’s time is $21.36. That means our volunteers helped us save more than $700,000.

This allows us to better serve our community and work towards our mission to alleviate hunger!  Huge thanks to all of our volunteers!!

Mindy Ortiz
Volunteer Services & Food Drive Manager

Early on the bright and crisp morning of Saturday, December 17^th, three large Second Harvest trucks filled with 52,464 pounds of emergency food boxes and fresh produce got ready to roll toward six Orange County public schools. Second Harvest staff and management gathered in the parking lot to work out last minute details. Dave Krepcho, Second Harvest President and CEO, was first to rumble out of the lot and toward Hungerford Elementary School.

At the schools, families of students were already lined up in anticipation, as enthusiastic volunteers prepared for an orderly distribution. The energetic volunteers, young, old and in between, had been recruited and organized by Orange County Public Schools Food and Nutrition Services. They worked like a finely tuned orchestra, handling every surprise with patience, smiles and lots of laughs.

At East River High School, a seemingly endless line of vehicles stretched off into the distance. Volunteers quickly began filling trunks and backseats with food boxes. A couple pulled up on a motorcycle. They left with saddlebags brimming.

At Cheney Elementary the turnout was even more dramatic. By then, the local media had reported the event and many families on foot were patiently waiting as we pulled in. Youngsters helped carry boxes to parked cars while others filled bags with fresh produce. Smiling faces and expressions of gratitude made an already sunny day that much brighter.

Similar scenes played out at Evans High, Ivey Lane Elementary and Glenridge Middle Schools. Nearly 1,400 families worried less about having food to eat during the two week break from school when children lack access to school cafeterias.

This has been our largest Holiday Food Drop to-date and it was all done within the space of four hours.

Thanks to our partners, the Winter Park Health Foundation and Orange County Public Schools’ Food and Nutrition Services, as well as to the volunteers who helped make the face-to-face link between our work and the community at large.

Photos from the day:

Santos Maldonado
Childhood Hunger Programs Manager

Among the many things we’ve learned at Second Harvest Food Bank over the years are a couple of simple truths about people. First, that most people in our community are generous, and tend to want to help others who are less fortunate.

Second, that in order for someone to reach the point of actually ‘taking action’ to help someone else, one has to first be made aware that the problems are real—and that they represent true hardship for those who face them every day. Once that awareness and a connection with the heart is made, resources and assistance begin to flow, plain and simple. And lives are changed as a result.

Real Radio 104.1 broadcaster Jim Philips has sometimes been called a ‘king-maker’ in reference to his ability to affect public opinion around political candidates. His passion for helping the community, however, just might earn him the moniker of ‘hope-maker’ as well. Philips and his on-air crew have been passionate supporters of the Second Harvest Food Bank mission for a number of years, and continue to lend it an extraordinary amount of credibility and awareness among thousands of faithful radio listeners.

Last fall, I was thrilled to learn that the Philips Phile program was planning to repeat the successful ‘Make Jim Pay’ on-air challenge that they had inaugurated during the previous holiday season. We were informed in November that the show’s team would devote valuable air-time to bringing awareness and attention to the plight of Central Florida’s struggling families, and that listeners would be asked to consider what their own generous contributions could accomplish.

A goal of $25,000 in donations made through the Second Harvest web site was set up, along with the challenge that Mr. Philips would get out his own checkbook and write a big check if the goal was achieved by Christmas Day. What a guy!

Those who listen to the ‘Philips Phile’ program will attest that not a single day went by during the holiday season that Jim, Moira, Jack, and Jana did not talk in great depth about how important it is that our community take action to help those in need of food. And, wow, did the listeners ever connect with their message!

Not only was the goal of $25,000 achieved by the deadline date, but managed to attract the attention and support of Panera Bread’s ‘Dough Nation’ program to the effort as well. Panera offered to collect money at each of their restaurant locations, as well as provide a dollar for dollar match to the funds that were donated. As a result, this combined effort has produced a total of more than $46,000 in just over a month!

This incredible listener response is a great testament to the loyalty and respect that so many people in Central Florida feel for Philips and his Phile team.   Jim, Moira, Jack Bradshaw, and Jana Banana truly get our thanks and kudos for helping us change so many more lives for the better.

So what does all that great support really mean?  Try this: Get out your calculator and multiply $46,000 by nine. Then imagine yourself walking into your local grocery store and spending that amount on food for low-income seniors, kids, working poor families, homeless, and others who need help. Tip: You’ll need a big cart.

On behalf of a grateful community, thanks to the Philips Phile, to all the listeners who dug deep to make Jim pay, and to Panera Bread.

Happy New Year!

Greg Higgerson
Vice-President, Development

If you are like me, you dread having to wake up very early in the morning. But there is 1 week a year when I don’t mind the 3 am wake up call. In fact, I look forward to it!

Want to know why? 83,562 pounds of food and over $15,000 in financial donations. That’s why! All Thanks to WESH’s  Share Your Christmas Food and Fund Drive.

The 26^th annual Share Your Christmas food drive took place in 6 counties here in Central Florida on December 12-16^th. Each day the WESH news crew showed up bright and early to inform our community where and when to drop off their donations.

What is really neat about this food drive is all the different individuals and groups you get to meet throughout the day. Like this guy!

A lot of businesses or groups will collect their non perishables beforehand and drop them off together at Share Your Christmas. The Student Government Association of Boone High School led their school food drive. They delivered over 5,000 pounds of food donations on Friday morning to the WESH Studios!

Also who can forget Star Child Academy? They received a challenge from a Second Harvest Food Bank board member. The challenge was if they could raise more than 20,000 lbs of food, he would donate an additional $5,000! Guess what? Not only did they reach their goal…they hit it out of the park! StarChild Academy brought in close to 30,000 pounds of food for the Share Your Christmas food drive. Plus we were presented a check for the $5,000! Pretty amazing. How cute are they??

A huge thank you goes out to everyone who donated throughout the week, our incredible volunteers who worked early morning hours to help box up the food, and of course all of the wonderful folks at WESH. All of these people really and truly SHARED THEIR CHRISTMAS with our neighbors in need.

To learn more about how you can hold your own food or funds drive, click here!

Photos from Share Your Christmas Food Drive:

Sasha Hausman

Development Manager
Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida