It is that time again. The kids are all back in school and Callahan Community Center is swarming with energized children. As parents and many adults in Orlando strive to reach their health goals this year, we are encouraging children to make healthier choices too.

GROSS, our 5-week nutrition education program, promotes fruit and veggie consumption by teaching children how to prepare them in delicious ways. This time we got the 3rd graders involved.

Week one included the white/tan/brown fruit and vegetable color family. Interestingly enough, these 3rd graders were much “tougher” than the 2nd graders. Every single one of them seemed to raise their hand when asked if they like fruits and vegetables.

However, when it came time to actually eat them, some of their faces told another story. By the end of class, I can say everyone did have a smile on their face … including their bananas. 

This was a hit:

Banana Pop!

Ingredients:
• Popsicle stick
• Banana, cut in half with skin still on
• Creamy peanut butter (We used natural version.)
• Topping of your choice: crushed cereal, granola, graham cracker crumbs, crushed nuts, dried fruit, etc. (We used fruity cheerios.)
 
Directions:
1. Take each banana half and stick a popsicle stick carefully into each half (so it looks like a popsicle). Then remove skin. Place in freezer until frozen or at least firm.
2. When firm/frozen, coat banana with peanut butter and dip into topping.
 
Adapted from: http://www.easy-banana-recipes.com/

 Enjoy!

Maria Ali, RD, LD/N
Nutrition Manager

Last year, Second Harvest utilized  nearly 500 partner feeding programs to distribute 24 million pounds of food into the community. The Sharing Center is doing their part to fight hunger in Seminole County.

The Sharing Center has locations in Sanford and in Longwood. Last year alone, they helped over 51,000 people with food and other services.   I visited the Longwood location the second week of December and met with Don Warner, the Pantry Supervisor of both sites.
The holidays are especially busy at The Sharing Center. For Thanksgiving, they distributed 2000 baskets, and plan on distributing the same amount for the Christmas Holiday.  In addition to the Christmas baskets, The Sharing Center started a “shoe card” program this year.  The Sharing Center has been purchasing and receiving donated gift cards to discount shoe stores.  They will give gift cards to each child living in the household, up to 19 years old.

The Sharing Center has a large group of volunteers that help out at the pantry.  Many of the volunteers go back to the pantry to volunteer on a repetitive basis because of the enjoyment they receive.

If you are interested in learning more about the Sharing Center please follow this link:  http://www.thesharingcenter.org/

Erin Gray
Agency Relations Manager

“Gross!” is what we commonly hear from children when they are asked to try vegetables. We decided to take on the challenge and turn that response to “Mmm-mmm…good!”

We successfully completed our challenge with the generous help of CarMax. We piloted GROSS, a 5-week nutrition education program at the Callahan Community Center in the Parramore area. Every week one of the five fruit and vegetable color families was highlighted, and children made recipes with fruits and vegetables in that color family.

Who would’ve known that raw red bell peppers and radishes would be enjoyed so much by 2nd graders? This kid-friendly recipe was a hit!

Give it a try:

Red Pepper and Radish Pizza
(Sample Serving)

Ingredients:
1 Cracker (We used Cuban crackers)
1 Tsp Low Fat/Light Cream Cheese
4 small pieces of diced radish
4 small pieces of diced red bell pepper

Directions:
• Spread the cream cheese onto the cracker.
• Sprinkle the diced radishes onto the cream cheese.
• Sprinkle the diced red peppers onto the cream cheese.

View photos from the last week of our nutrition education program at Callahan Community Center.

 
Maria Ali, RD, LD/N
Nutrition Manager

Taste of the nation is almost here! 

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!

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

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

Central Florida children served by Kids Cafe – an after school nutritional program operated by Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida – became bakers-in-training on Tuesday, January 10 at Midway Safe Harbor Center. Midway Safe Harbor Center is located in Sanford, Florida.

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

At Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida we have more than 500 partner agencies and we serve 6 counties. As the Agency Relations Manager I am very fortunate that I get to work with and get to know our partner agencies that are located throughout Central Florida who help to end hunger.  One of those partner agencies that I work with and would like to spotlight is the Sharing Center.   

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