We have 34 restaurants participating in Central Florida’s favorite foodie event this year. I bet some of your favorite Central Florida dining spots are on this list .

Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation event is put together by a volunteer committee group. I attend the meetings as a representative of Second Harvest Food Bank. Both beneficiaries, Coalition for the Homeless and Second Harvest Food Bank help out with the planning of the event. If you are attending, make sure to stop by our tables.

To enable you to fully enjoy the endless supply of wine, beer and delicious cocktails, Orlando World Center Marriott is generously offering Taste of the Nation guests a discounted rate for rooms on the night of June 5th! Click here to take advantage of this fabulous deal. The code will show up automatically on the page.

Everyone has worked so hard these past few months bringing this event together. I can’t give away everything that we have planned … but I can give you a sneak peak of what to expect. 

Here is a small food preview: 

      -  Chef-carved Rosemary and Dijon Crusted Roasted Pork Loin Served with a Wild Mushroom 
          and Sun-Dried Tomato Pearl Barley Risotto
      -  Chef Jean-Louis’ Bananas Foster
      -  Greek Tuna Tataki in Lettuce Gyros with Sumac, Onions and Avocado Tzatziki
      -  Roasted Beet Brownies with Gorgonzola, Spicy Cashews & Vanilla Honey

We also have some very unique auction items this year. Don’t forget to make your way around the silent auction. You never know what you will find!

      -  New York Yankees 27 World Championships ticket replicas
      -  Tickets to the Rachael Ray taping in New York plus plane ticket
      -  A  trip Chicago: flight, hotel, and dining included
      -  Chefs tables from Taste of the Nation participating Restaurants
      -  Many more!

100% of ticket sales help ensure no kid in America grows up hungry.

Hope to see you at Taste of the Nation Orlando! If you want to find me … look for the person twittering, facebooking and taking photos.

Click here to buy tickets!

Maria Diestro
Online Services and Communications Manager

Don’t forget to check-in. I will be leaving tips throughout the night!

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

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

Yesterday, a group of around 50 kids learned how to make and enjoy homemade pies! The American Pie Council’s Board was also there to teach the basic cooking skills and prep work, such as rolling dough.

Pie making is geared toward elementary-school age children. The American Pie Council will be making pies again in April for the Great American Pie Festival.  For more information, visit the American Pie Council.

Watch a video of the kids at work:

Photo Slideshow of Pie Making:

Maria Diestro
Online Services and Communications Manager

The Sharing Center is one of our partner feeding programs located in Seminole County. Their main distribution site is in Longwood, Florida. Their 40×60 sq ft pantry is able to provide over 2,000 bags of food a month to over 600 families.

The Sharing Center states that they have seen an increase in families that are coming to receive food from them this year compared to previous years. 

Michael Kenyon, the Director of Volunteer and Pantry Services at the Sharing Center, says “We shop every week in order receive nutritious and substantial food for our clients. Second Harvest is great benefit to us and our clients”. 

The Sharing Center is open Monday – Friday from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. to help people in need.  If you want to volunteer or find out more information on the Sharing Center, please check out their Web site.

Erin Gray
Agency Relations Manager

Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation® is the nation’s premier culinary benefit dedicated to making sure no kid in America grows up hungry. We are proud and honored to be one of the beneficiaries of this amazing event.

Over 30 of Central Florida’s leading restaurants came out in full force. Not only did everything taste great, but it looked beautiful too. There was live music by local band Crash Reality, a silent auction, and even a chance to make your own music video! I know I had a great time, and I think it’s pretty safe to say that no one left that night without a full stomach and a smile on their face!

Over $145,000 was raised through ticket sales, raffles and the silent auction, which will go towards fighting childhood hunger. Proceeds locally benefit Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida and Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida; state wide beneficiaries include Florida Impact and the North Florida Educational Development Corporation. 

Thank you to everyone who came out to the event. We are already thinking about next year when Taste of the Nation Orlando turns 21! Enjoy the pictures.

Taste of the Nation Review:
Taste of the Nation a big, tasty success from Scott Joseph’s Orlando Restaurant Guide