September 26, 2011

We’ve run out of space, but not out of need …

Author: Greg Higgerson

As our nation and community weathers the toughest economic times in many decades, the numbers of our neighbors in need of food continue to grow larger. It should not come as a surprise to learn that Second Harvest Food Bank continues to push forward in our mission, and has continued to deliver record distributions of food each year throughout our history and even through the recession years. What may come as a surprise to some, however, is that such vital, steady growth has temporarily come to an end.

The more than 33 million pounds of grocery products distributed by Second Harvest Food Bank over the past 12 months has pushed the envelope of our organization’s infrastructure to its very limit and beyond.

How do we know? We know because there was no place to put millions of pounds of additional fruits, vegetables and other nutritious items that could have helped people. Our cooler and freezer space wasn’t adequate to handle the food that was available. Dry storage has exceeded capacity as well. Read More …

May 11, 2010

Meet Our Brevard Branch

Author: Greg Higgerson

For many years, Second Harvest Food Bank provided food to partner feeding programs in Brevard County through the Brevard Community Food Bank—which operated as a program of Catholic Charities.

In 2000, Catholic Charities decided to get out of the food banking business as a program, and offered SHFB a chance to take over the operation when they left.   With the support of the local United Way, the Catholic Charities program transitioned over to SHFB’s Brevard Branch in July, 2000.  

For ten years, the new Branch has served 80 Brevard County feeding programs, and has increased food distribution by 390%.

Get to know our Brevard branch:

Greg Higgerson
VP of Development

December 29, 2009

250,000 Pound of Food Into the Community

Author: Brady Koch

Thanks to the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation we’ll be able to put 250,000 more pounds of food into the community during the remainder of the holiday season and beyond. The foundation has donated funding to Jewish Family Services, Catholic Charities and ourselves to make this quarter-of-a-million pounds happen.

Take a moment to read Kate Santich from the Orlando Sentinel’s blog entry “What can you do with 250,000 pounds of food? A lot” about the donation. She’s a better wordsmith than I.

 Just to show you how much food this is here’s some different ways to measure the impact of the donation.

• This is enough for 166,000 meals.
• This is more than 6 tractor-trailers full of food.
• This is more than 175 palates of food.
• This could feed a family of four, three meals a day for over 40 years.

 OK that last one was a little silly, but I wanted to explain how much food this is and how much of an impact this makes in the community. I don’t know what the shelf life is for a can of peas, but they may not be good in 2049.

If you’re interested in joining the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation and us in the fight against hunger, please contact Second Harvest and we’ll be happy to talk.

Brady Koch
Director of Agency Relations & Programs