Ripe fruit, colorful vegetables, and fresh baked goods … some of the most sought after product at the food bank!

Sometimes it is hard for Second Harvest Food Bank to get these food items to all of the counties in our service area. We are thankful for the Osceola Community Vision for letting us know that Osceola County needed more fruit, veggies, and baked goods. This is why Second Harvest created the Produce and Baked Goods Drop.

Osceola Council of Aging was gracious enough to be the host site for this monthly drop off. Second Harvest Food Bank dropped off 10 pallets of produce and 10 pallets of baked goods. We had 18 partner agencies that came out with volunteers who helped load up their vehicles with all of the wonderful product. Our partner agencies then distributed the food to their clients, which consists of people in need in Osceola County.

These drops are a win/win for everyone. We are excited to be able to reach out to agencies that usually aren’t able to get this product and our agencies were happy that the drop was close and they could offer a variety of fruits, veggies, and baked goods to their clients.

We will continue to schedule these special drops on a monthly basis to ensure that our neighbors in need in Osceola County will be able to eat more nutritious and wholesome foods.

Erin Gray
Agency Relations Manager

This past Saturday morning we piloted our Produce to the People program at Victory World Outreach in Maitland. The goal of Produce to the People is to deliver a truckload of produce directly to a community site where it will be handed our immediately by a team of volunteers from one of our partner feeding agencies. We wanted to focus on fresh produce for this program because that can be the most difficult for our clients to have access to on a limited budget.

For our pilot, we delivered two palates of cucumbers, two palates or corn, four palates of grapefruit juice, two palates of Grocery Alliance items, and two palates of apple slices. It was a chilly morning, but Victory World Outreach estimates that they served a little over 200 people.

Volunteers were the key to success. There were at least 16 volunteer on hand. They had an assembly line set up that would make Henry Ford proud. In addition to handing out food, volunteers would help people to their cars, talk to people in the waiting line, and direct traffic. 

Thanks to everyone who helped organize this event. Big thanks to Victory World Outreach. They went way above and beyond in organizing the distribution. This Saturday we’re in Kissimmee to try it all over again with some changes here and there.

We’ll be testing out this program two more times this month in Kissimmee and East Orange County. We’ll let you know how it goes!

Upcoming Produce to the People Pilots

October 24th
8:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.
Solid Rock
Church of God
1904 North Michigan Ave.
Kissimmee, Florida 34774

October 31st
8:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.
New Covenant Church of Central Florida
990 Belvedere Road
Orlando, Florida 32820

Below are some photos from the event: