February 1, 2012

Eatonville Boys & Girls Club’s Kids Café

Author: Santos Maldonado

Eatonville Boys & Girls Club’s Kids Cafe welcomed over 120 youngsters with a hot afterschool meal on its opening day. The club sits in the heart of historic Eatonville; the nation’s oldest established African-American township. It is a stone’s throw from Hungerford Elementary and draws more than 200 students from nearby elementary, middle, and high schools.

Joyce Davis, who prepared  the meals, tell us that before Kids Cafe, children would receive small snacks consisting of bagels or cheese perhaps two or three times weekly, without regularity.

Second Harvest Food Bank, with the support of the Winter Park Health Foundation, has made it possible for these children to rely on a wholesome meal each and every day while school is in session. During the summer, Second Harvest will sponsor the club so that it may participate in the Summer Food Service Program which helps bridge the nutritional gap when children lack access to school cafeterias. Read More …

September 13, 2011

AARP Day of Service at Second Harvest Food Bank

Author: Maria Diestro

Let’s hear it for AARP! This year, they have made a major commitment to hunger among older Americans. Our CEO, Dave Krepcho, wrote about it in his “Hunger and the Daytona 500?” blog post in February.

Well this year, AARP designated Friday, September 9 as it’s Day of Service where the main focus was also hunger. On this day staff and volunteers nationwide went out to serve in their local communities.

How is this related to Second Harvest? Well, on Friday, September 9 we had 60 Winter Park AARP volunteers at our sorting facility putting together senior packs. Basically, they took over the food bank on that day and put together 5,452 senior food packs. Pretty amazing, right? Read More …

May 5, 2011

Second Harvest Receives a visit from Disney’s “Shine On” Prize Patrol

Author: Maria Diestro

On Tuesday, April 19th Second Harvest Food Bank had a very special guest visit our facility. Rumors of two big ears and white gloves spotted in our board room circulated our office emails that morning. By 10 am, everyone at Second Harvest had caught a glimpse of Mickey Mouse walking down our hallways.

As part of a 40-day celebration across Central Florida, Disney is shining a spotlight on organizations that improve the lives of children in our community. Mickey made a surprise visit to Second Harvest to recognize and reward our efforts in the work we do to combat childhood hunger. We were lucky to share the stage with Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida, New Beginnings and the Hope Foundation. All four organizations received a special gift totaling $120,000.

 Second Harvest received $50,000 from Disney’s Helping Kids Shine Grant! We are so grateful to be one of the beneficiaries of Disney’s generosity. With Disney’s support, we are going to be able to provide hundreds of thousands of meals to kids in need. Read More …

December 22, 2010

Whatever It Takes

Author: Brady Koch

On a chilly, rainy Saturday morning, Second Harvest Food Bank and Winter Park Health Foundation staff teamed up to unload a truckload of food in the parking lots of Glenridge Middle School, Hungerford and Cheney Elementary schools. 

 Thanks to a generous grant from the Foundation, Second Harvest was set up to distribute emergency food boxes to families who are struggling.  Word of the distribution had been circulated through local emergency food pantries, and there was no shortage of people who needed the help.  

Even before the truck arrived, cars had been lining up since before daybreak. Many of the vehicles contained more than one family, and had arrived early to avoid missing out on the getting one or two of the boxes.   

This distribution was a little different than others have been in the past, mostly because of the steady drizzle of rain. People mostly stayed inside their vehicles this time, except to hop out and quickly secure their food in the trunk.  

Still, smiling, relieved faces of all ages and ethnicities could be plainly seen through the dripping windows, and a heartfelt ‘thank you!’ was the most-often heard phrase that day. In all, 470 boxes of wholesome, staple food items found their way back to homes.  

Additional shout out to OCPS Nutrition Services for providing all of the volunteers for the sites.

Brady Koch
Director of Agency Relations & Programs

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!