May 24, 2011

We are all HOGstars!

Author: Sasha Hausman

Definition of a HOGstar (noun), a person who supported the Hogs Against Hunger fundraiser and ride to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida’s Hi-Five program. 

Hogstars come in many different forms. Some purchased raffle tickets online or at an event. Some shared or retweeted about the fundraiser. Some came out to participate in a ride down I-4 last Sunday. Some sold tickets in the Harley stores, and some volunteered to spread the word. Finally some spent tireless hours organizing and working the events. But no matter what kind of HOGstar you were, you were able to help raise over $45,000 to feed children in need in our community by purchasing $10 raffle tickets to win a 2011 Harley-Davidson Road King Classic.

What does $45,000 look like? Read More …

December 17, 2010

Closest to the Pin

Author: Brady Koch

Every year the staff and Board of Directors at Second Harvest have the opportunity to get together for a holiday luncheon. It’s a great calm moment in the midst of our busiest part of the year. In addition to reviewing our year of service to the community we also get to play a couple of games.

This year in honor of the “Make Jim Pay –Philips Phile Challenge” we decided to play a trivia game based on Closest to the Pin.

Try and guess the answer to these questions and highlight the invisible text below to see how close to the pin you get. Remember that close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades!

 #1. How many calories in a standard Hi-Five weekend feeding packs for kids: 1350

 #2. Pounds of fresh produce we distributed to our partner agencies in fiscal year 09/10: 3,424,634

 #3. Number of miles driven in our longest Grocery Alliance retail store
pickup program route: 120 miles. It’s the Monday-Wednesday-Friday Volusia County 

#4. Year that the food bank was founded: 1983

 #5. Number of active Board of Directors: 20

 #6. How many Benefits Connection SNAP (food stamp) applications were filled out during the month of October: 691

 #7. How many Facebook fans do we have: 1,689 as of 11:21am on December 17.

 #8. How tall is our CEO Dave: 6’4”

 #9. According to our last hunger study, what is the exact number of people who received food assistance in 2009 through Second Harvest: 731,9000

Brady Koch
Director of Agency Relations & Programs

December 8, 2010

You cared, people were helped. Thank you.

Author: Dave Krepcho

Your support of Second Harvest Food Bank has made an impact in lives of thousands of Central Florida seniors, children, and families this past year.

Here’s a look at our accomplishments:

- Second Harvest distributed 24,764,248 pounds of food to more than 500 partner feeding programs in our 6 county-wide service area.

- Our Kids Cafe program served, prepared or catered meals to 164,155 children at 13 kids cafe’s in 3 counties.

- During the summer, we served 43,188 meals for school age children at 17 sites in Orange County through our Summer Feeding program. Through a grant from ConAgra we were also able to provide the kids with 15,773 take-home, shelf-stable food packs for the weekends.

- Our Hi-Five Kids packs program distributed 31,245 shelf-stable food packs to needy children at 18 elementary schools. These packs are designed to help bridge the nutritional gap that exists during weekends, when children lack access to school cafeterias.

- An amazing 1,227,100 pounds of non-perishable grocery products were collected in fiscal 2009/2010 through our Community Food Drives.

- Our Benefits Connection program secured over $14 million in food stamp benefits for Central Floridians. In addition to food stamp benefits, our specialists also signed clients up for Medicaid and Cash Assistance, and provided referrals to a network of collaborating agencies.

- Second Harvest Food Bank set up an online advocacy center and urged congressional leaders to fully fund and pass Child Nutrition Reauthorization. The Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill was passed last week in Congress!

Whether you volunteered, gave a special gift, contacted your elected officials, or simply were part of our online community, YOU helped thousands of Central Floridians this year. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Dave Krepcho
President & CEO

November 19, 2010

Victory Blog

Author: Brady Koch

I’m pleased to announce that our trio Childhood Hunger programs received a Victory Against Hunger Award from the Congressional Hunger Center, Victory Wholesale Group and Feeding America.

We reached a record number of children through our Kids Cafe, Hi-Five, and Summer Food programs in the last year and it is always a pleasure to be recognized for our work.

A breakdown of the 3 programs:

Kids Cafes
           At 13 After School sites in 3 counties, 164,155 prepared or catered meals were served in fiscal 2009/2010. This reflects a 12% increase over the previous year. An average of 910 children were served daily.

Summer Food Program
           During 51 operational days while children in needy areas lacked access to school lunch programs, 43,188 meals were served at 17 sites in Orange County this past summer, reflecting an increase of 9% over last year. Through a grant from ConAgra we were also able to provide the children with , 15,773 take-home, shelf-stable food packs for the weekends.

Hi-Five Kids Pack Program
          31,245 shelf-stable food packs were provided to needy children at 18 elementary schools last year. These packs are designed to help bridge the nutritional gap that exists during weekends, when children lack access to school cafeterias.

The Congressional Hunger Center (CHC) is a bipartisan anti-hunger leadership training organization located in Washington, DC. In addition to the fellowships they offer, the CHC facilitates the national discussion of finding ways to end hunger in America.

It’s nice to be able to take a break from our workday and be honored, but there’s always more work to get back to. We continue to see more and more children enrolled in our programs and there’s much more to do. Can you help?

Brady Koch
Director of Agency Relations & Programs
bkoch@foodbankcentralflorida.org

December 21, 2009

Working Together to Save Winter Break

Author: Brady Koch

This past Saturday we partnered with Orange County Public Schools and the Winter Park Health Foundation to provide food to families this holiday season. The two week break from school can be especially difficult to children who rely on the free and reduced school lunch program. With this in mind, we gathered a team of volunteers, 22,000 lbs of food and marketed the weekend food distribution to children participating in our Hi-Five program at eight of the schools located near our two distribution sites.

 When I arrived at Cheney Elementary on Saturday, there were already some families there over an hour and a half earlier than our scheduled starting time. We had 10 palettes of potatoes, oranges, bread , pastries, and pantry boxes filled with 14 common items like peanut butter and tuna. As the morning went on, we ended up distributing food to 450 families at Cheney and Hungerford Elementary.

A couple of the stories stood out to me that demonstrated how our community comes together in times of need. Two mothers whose families received food that morning returned to our site to volunteer the rest of the day. Another mother, who had no transportation, walked for two hours to get to our site. She was willing to physically carry all of the food back home. Thankfully, another volunteer loaded up her groceries and drove her home.

A father and son rode to our site on bicycles and a pair of volunteers tried their best to safely load the bicycles with any food that they could carry. When another recipient family saw this they offered to take the father and son, bicycles, and food back home.

While we know it isn’t enough food for two entire weeks in meals it was enough to make an immediate difference in these families’ lives. It was a great way to come together as a community and fight hunger in Central Florida.

Brady Koch
Director of Agency Relations & Programs