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!

June 23, 2010

Every Cause Needs A Champion

Author: Sasha Hausman

We would like to introduce you to 11 year-old Abbey Brunault.

Abbey came into the food bank a couple of weeks to show us a video she had created for her class. Abbey’s teacher, Mrs. Patti Gordon, asked her class to learn more about a non-profit. Out of all the wonderful organizations in Central Florida, Abbey ended up choosing Second Harvest Food Bank.

All the information on the video Abbey grabbed from our brochures and website. She created the video on her computer and used pictures she took herself when she and her mom came to volunteer. We are in the process of getting this video on our youtube page. Be sure to check back next week to see the posted video.

In addition to creating this amazing video, Abbey handed us a check for $200 out of her own money. What an amazing individual.

We were all so touched by Abbey’s commitment to fighting hunger that we asked her to speak at our Feeding Hope Breakfast. The title of her speech was Hunger is Unacceptable.

We frequently present examples of kids whose families are struggling with poverty, and who need food assistance.  Today, we’re thrilled to present an example of just the opposite.   

A kid who has received the proper nutrition from birth, been nurtured, and supported by loving parents and teachers.  And look what is possible!   So many kids lack only the nutrition element, and could be so much more.  

That’s one of the primary motivators for staff and board at Second Harvest Food Bank.

June 15, 2010

Customer Service Survey 2010: Client Frequency

Author: Brady Koch

We’ve just completed our Customer Service Survey of our 600+ partner feeding programs. We use this tool to evaluate our service to the feeding programs who access our warehouse. It helps us make certain that we’re acting as good stewards to all of the donations that the community provides to us.

There was so much participation, that the amount of data we have to sort through is amazing. Over the next couple of blog entries, I’ll share with you some of the results of our survey so that everyone can benefit from the project.

When a new agency joins the food bank they often times ask how often they should distribute food. We encourage these new feeding programs to contact some of our veteran partner agencies to find a distribution frequency that is best for them.

We would hope that all of our partners have a sustainability plan that makes certain that they are able to fight hunger in the long run. Overall we encourage them to set some kind of limit so as not to overburden your volunteers and budgets.

Here’s what the results of our survey told us:

Question 4a: How often can clients come to your pantry?

Once per month                      38%
Once per week                        23%
Twice per month                      12%
As Needed                              10%
Once every two months             4%
Other                                      13%

Look for more survey results in the coming weeks.

Brady Koch
Director of Agency Relations & Programs