November 18, 2010

Call Congress to Support Child Nutrition Bill

Author: Dave Krepcho

Dear Friend of the Food Bank:
We need your help in a very important way. The Food Bank typically does not ask for folks to call Congress, however, this is a time-sensitive, critical issue for alleviating childhood hunger and improving nutrition.

The child nutrition bill before Congress is in danger of not passing.  We are engaged along with other Food Banks across the country and Feeding America in an effort to pass the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (S.3307).  Right now, there is one thing that you can do to help:

Call Congress  -   Just dial 877-698-8228 to be directly connected to your Representative’s office and deliver this message:
“Congress must pass the child nutrition bill this year. Do not go home without passing the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act (S.3307).”

Calling your Representative will help us keep up the pressure on Congress to pass the child nutrition bill.  And remember, one call is not enough—ask your staff, volunteers, partners and supporters to make a call.

There is a sense of urgency for this call because time is running out for Congress before the 111th Congress ends this calendar year. Only a couple of weeks remain. If you know members of Congress and have access to them while they are home for Thanksgiving, please make the request for passage of S. 3307.

If you are interested in more detail on this bill and some background, we’ve provided the following:

This bill is the bipartisan Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (S. 3307). We are disappointed that this was not reauthorized by September 30. It is imperative that the reauthorization be completed this year, and we urge Congress and the Administration to act.

We are also concerned by the recent divisiveness surrounding this reauthorization and its potential to put passage of the child nutrition bill at risk. This reauthorization is not a choice between addressing child hunger or childhood obesity. It is a chance to significantly improve nutrition for all children. Far too many children – especially low-income children – lack the nutrition they need to be healthy and successful in school and on the playground. By improving opportunities for healthy meals in and out of school, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act would take a step forward in addressing both child hunger and obesity: S. 3307 would help reduce hunger and increase children’s access to healthy meals by expanding the supper program from 14 to all 50 states, better connecting eligible children with free school meals, extending the WIC certification period for children to one year, and improving opportunities for mothers to fully breastfeed their infants. The bill would fund demonstration projects to test innovative strategies for ending child hunger – including alternate models of service – and support research into the causes and consequences of childhood hunger. The bill also authorizes grants to retain summer food program sponsors, improve and expand breakfast programs, and encourage states to develop comprehensive strategies to end child hunger.

S. 3307 would make progress against childhood obesity and improve the nutritional quality of meals by strengthening nutrition standards for all foods sold in schools, providing schools with increased resources and training to improve meal quality, and supporting farm-to-school programs and school gardens. The bill would also establish nutrition requirements and provide technical assistance to help child care providers improve the health of young children.

Even with the important progress made by S. 3307, more must be done to reach the goals of ending child hunger by 2015 and solving childhood obesity in a generation. We appreciate the new commitment that Agriculture Secretary Vilsack made to use his administrative authority to further improve access to the school lunch and breakfast programs.

As Congress and the Administration continue working toward these goals, first on the list must be improving access to child nutrition programs and protecting SNAP families:

Of the more than 19 million low-income children participating in free or reduced-price lunch, less than half eat school breakfast and only 16 percent access a summer food program. Most high-poverty school districts cannot meet the demand for local weekend feeding programs. S. 3307 would not fully address gaps during weekends, summers, and breakfasts, and more is needed to ensure vulnerable children have access to healthy meals. Congress and the Administration should identify alternative vehicles to establish the weekend feeding pilot and expand the year-round simplification of summer and afterschool programs included in H.R. 5504, and should fully fund the summer, breakfast, and child hunger grants authorized in S. 3307.

Locally, Central Florida has a higher rate of childhood food insecurity than the national average; approximately 1 in 4 children are in this category. The numbers are not declining, they are increasing. Last year, Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida provided enough food for 17 million meals — of that total; approximately 4 million meals were consumed by kids.

We will continue to source as much food as possible and get it to the people most in need with local resources, creativity, innovation and efficiency. However, Congress has a critical role to play to pass this legislation…we cannot do it alone. If it is not passed, billions of dollars can be lost.

Thank you for your support over the years and thank you for taking the time to read this far. We are committed to ending hunger and improving nutrition for all children.

Thank you,
Dave Krepcho
President/CEO
Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida

407-295-1066, ext. 38   dkrepcho@foodbankcentralflorida.org

September 16, 2010

Hunger Action Month Week #3

Author: Maria Diestro

Can you believe that we are halfway through Hunger Action Month? What actions have you taken so far from our 30 Ways in 30 Days calendar? I would love any feedback or ideas you may have on our calendar.

I have been super busy promoting our calendar via our social media channels. I am happy to report that people have been sharing my links daily. If you would like to receive updates from us … like us on facebook or follow us on twitter. We would love to interact with you via these channels.

Since there are 15 more days left of Hunger Action Month, I wanted to give you a quick rundown of some fun and quick actions you can take this week.

Today you can participate in Kraft’s Text to Give campaign. Text the word “MEALS” and your zip code to 71717 and Kraft will donate a meal to Second Harvest Food Bank. This is part of the Huddle to Fight Hunger Campaign. Everytime someone joins the huddle in Central Florida a meal gets donated to Second Harvest Food Bank. And guess what … Florida is in second place! 

On Friday, September 17 fight hunger with just one click. Download Pampered Chef’s Cookbook for a Cause for free and a meal with be donated to Feeding America. Pampered Chef’s goal is to donate 10 million pounds of food this year. You can help them reach this goal by downloading this exclusive celebrity cookbook.

You can actually do this action every day till September 23. Vote for the hunger image that moves you the most! Online voting for our Portraits of Hunger Photography contest has started. We have received over 900 votes already. Remember, you can vote as many times as you want.

We need your help in choosing the top 3 photos. After that, our 3 judges will choose the winner. The winner of Portraits will be announced along with a display of all photo entries at our showcase party. The winner will have their photo showcased at The Enzian Theater for a month!

Here are the details:
Portraits of Hunger Showcase Party
Date: Thursday, September 30, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
Location: Enzian’s Eden Bar – 1300 South Orlando Avenue, Maitland, FL 32751
Bring a food donation (non-perishable) and receive a free Peroni. 1 free Peroni per person.

Until next week! 

Maria Diestro
Online Service and Communications Manager

August 24, 2010

Portraits of Hunger Photography Contest is Back

Author: Maria Diestro

Can you believe that Hunger Action Month is only 7 days away? One Hunger Action Month event we are bringing back is Portraits of Hunger. Portraits of Hunger is an online photography contest that brings light to the invisible problem of hunger in our community and the simple solutions.

Portraits of Hunger started in 2006 as a way to engage the community in bringing visibility to the invisible problem of hunger. Through this event, photographers of all abilities have gone out into their community to capture images that tell the story of hunger in Central Florida.

Last year 17 photographers participated in Portraits of Hunger. We received some pretty amazing photos of the faces and solutions of hunger in Central Florida. Below is a slideshow of their photo entries:

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

This year’s winner of Portraits of Hunger will have their photo displayed at Enzian Theater for a limited time. This is a great opportunity for a photographer to get some exposure. Thank you Enzian Theater!

So how does this photography contest work? The deadline to submit photos for Portraits of Hunger is Monday, August 30, 2010.

If you are interested, there is still time to enter the contest.  Click here to enter contest >>

From there the top ten photos will be chosen and posted on our website.

Online voting will start in early September. The top 3 winners will then be voted on by our three judges.

This year’s Portraits of Hunger judges are:
- Henry Maldonado, President of Enzian Theater
- Josh Garrick, Fine Art and Culture Writer for a series of news and on-line venues
- Dave Krepcho, President of Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida

The winner will be announced at our Portraits of Hunger Showcase party at Enzian’s Eden Bar on Thursday, September 30. All the photo entries will also be showcased at Eden Bar for that night.

Portraits of Hunger Showcase Party
Date: Thursday, September 30, 2010
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Enzian’s Eden Bar – 1300 South Orlando Avenue, Maitland, FL 32751
Bring a food donation and receive a free Peroni. One free Peroni per person. But feel free to bring as many cans as you’d like!

Click here to view photos from last year’s Portraits of Hunger Showcase. Hope to see you at Eden Bar on September 30!

Maria Diestro
Online Services and Communications Manager

July 19, 2010

Katharine McPhee Visits Second Harvest to Launch Summer Food Program

Author: Maria Diestro

ConAgra Foods Foundation has donated $5 million to Feeding America over the next five years to fund a new program at 23 food banks called Hunger-Free Summer.
 
Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida is one of the lucky recipients. This summer we’re distributing a total of 15,000 kids packs to our Summer feeding sites in addition to the lunches the kids are already receiving because of this grant. The goal of this program is to provide at least 25 percent more meals for children struggling with hunger during the summer.
 
The kick-off event for this program was in Orlando at the New Image Youth Center, one of our summer food sites. New Image Youth Center feeds around 25 kids weekly. 
 
Feeding America’s entertainment council member Katharine McPhee helped launch this amazing program. She spent the morning doing national and local media interviews. When it was time for lunch, she personally gave each kids at New Image Your Center a summer meal. Almost every child in the room was grinning from ear to ear. She even took the time to walk around the room and chat with them. 
 
View a montage of photos from that day.

 
To top everything off, Katharine McPhee spent the afternoon writing a song with the children. We captured video of this process. She makes it look so easy to do.
 

We are so grateful to have the support from ConAgra Foods Foundation, Feeding America and Katharine McPhee. 
 
Maria Diestro
Online Services and Communications Manager
 
p.s. We love the song and can’t seem to get it out of our heads!

April 20, 2010

PepsiCo Feeds America with National Day of Service

Author: Maria Diestro

When I walked into work this morning I was greeted by 50 PepsiCo volunteers. They filled up our volunteer greeting area and overflowed into our warehouse. One thing I love about my job is having the opportunity to meet individuals and organizations that come through our volunteer center. So why do we have 50 PepsiCo volunteers at Second Harvest today?

Today, MOSAIC, PepsiCo’s African-American employee network is organizing a day of service with Feeding America. PepsiCo volunteers will work in over 30 food banks nationwide to impact over 2 million people. 1,400 PepsiCo employees will generate more than 5,000 volunteer hours in one day. That’s a pretty incredible project!

Second Harvest Food Bank is excited to take part in PepsiCo’s Employee Day of Service. We are one of four food banks in Florida that is participating in this project. The other 3 food banks are in Tampa, Miami and Ft. Pierce. I went around and took photos and video of these employees hard at work.

Second Harvest Food Bank would like to thank PepsiCo for their time and commitment in the fight against hunger.  Enjoy the photos and video!

Pictures:

Video:

Maria Diestro
Online Services and Communications Manager