Archive for the 'Photos' Category

February 1, 2012

Eatonville Boys & Girls Club’s Kids Café

Author: Santos Maldonado

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. Read More …

January 17, 2012

Holiday Food Drop

Author: Santos Maldonado

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. Read More …

December 14, 2011

IWearYourShirt.com Highlights Second Harvest Food Bank

Author: Maria Diestro

Have you ever walked by someone with a cool shirt on and had the design stuck in your head? I personally can’t help myself from wanting to know more.

Well, IWearYourShirt.com has taken this interest and added a social media/Marketing element to it.

With a team of 5 people, IWearYourShirt.com promotes a different company every day on their website. Through twitter, facebook, youtube, flickr and a live chat each team member highlights the branded shirt in their own creative way.

Are you confused? This might help. I copied this from their website: “Think of IWearYourShirt as a social media advertising company via t-shirts?” Read More …

November 18, 2011

Hi-Five Kids Pack Program Update

Author: Maria Diestro

With the holidays rapidly approaching, most of us are preparing for a time of celebration and gift-giving. Yet for many children attending Central Florida Public Schools, this season will prove to be a particularly difficult one.

As many as 222,000* Central Florida students are receiving free or reduced cost lunches through the federally subsidized School Lunch Program because their families are struggling.

As a way of addressing this need Second Harvest is providing 18 Orange County elementary schools with Hi-Five Kids Packs – Kid friendly, shelf-stable packets of food product meant for weekend consumption. Each pack provides enough caloric content for a day to youngsters 6 to 8 years old.

In Orange County, which has 125 elementary schools, almost one fourth have free-lunch eligibility rates exceeding 95%. Osceola County reports a disturbing figure indicating that 70% of their students are now on the  eligible list for free lunch, up from 63% four years ago. * Read More …

November 9, 2011

A Magical Future for Hunger Relief in Central Florida

Author: Greg Higgerson

It was a morning of great celebration at Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.  In a very special ceremony outside our loading dock, one of our longest-serving and best corporate partners came by for a look back at our history together, and also brought the Food Bank one step closer to realizing its future vision for the community – by announcing a $500,000 gift and pledging to give us 20,000 pounds of fresh produce during the next year.

For twenty years, Walt Disney World has reached out to help Central Floridians in need through support of the Food Bank’s mission.  The company is one of very few that literally  helps the Food Bank in every manner possible—through incredible food donations, through financial support, and through volunteerism. Disney’s deep and enduring support of hunger relief has directly touched hundreds of thousands of lives in our community over the past two decades. 

Children, seniors, working poor families, homeless, and others have received the vital food assistance they needed because of this generosity.  To help keep that nutritious help going, this morning we learned of a new commitment from Disney to provide an additional 20,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables over and above the normal prepared and perishable food donations received daily through their Disney Harvest program. These products are the very food items that low income families cannot afford on their own, and represent added health and vitality for all who will receive them. Read More …