November 18, 2011

Hi-Five Kids Pack Program Update

Author: Maria Diestro

With the holidays rapidly approaching, most of us are preparing for a time of celebration and gift-giving. Yet for many children attending Central Florida Public Schools, this season will prove to be a particularly difficult one.

As many as 222,000* Central Florida students are receiving free or reduced cost lunches through the federally subsidized School Lunch Program because their families are struggling.

As a way of addressing this need Second Harvest is providing 18 Orange County elementary schools with Hi-Five Kids Packs – Kid friendly, shelf-stable packets of food product meant for weekend consumption. Each pack provides enough caloric content for a day to youngsters 6 to 8 years old.

In Orange County, which has 125 elementary schools, almost one fourth have free-lunch eligibility rates exceeding 95%. Osceola County reports a disturbing figure indicating that 70% of their students are now on the  eligible list for free lunch, up from 63% four years ago. * Read More …

September 12, 2011

Red Lobster Helps Fight Hunger in Central Florida

Author: Sasha Hausman

What do you think of when you hear the words “Red Lobster”? If you would have asked me a month ago I would have yelled “Cheddar Bay Biscuits!!” without skipping a beat (are those the best or what?). But now when someone mentions Red Lobster, I can only think of one word…heart.

Over the past 2 weeks Darden had the pleasure of hosting over 900 Red Lobster Managers from all of the country. They were here for their annual Leadership Conference at the Hilton Bonnet Creek. The folks from Red Lobster reached out to Darden and said they wanted to do something meaningful during their stay here. So that is where our story begins. Read More …

March 9, 2011

Second Harvest Childhood Hunger Programs

Author: Maria Diestro

Cape View Elementary School in Brevard County has become our 20th Hi-Five Kids Pack Partner School. Second Harvest Food Bank now offers the program in 3 counties; Orange, Volusia and Brevard. This latest addition was made possible by the generosity of IAP Worldwide Services based in Cape Canaveral.

The Hi-Five Kids Pack Program provides shelf-stable take-home meals for children who do not have access to school cafeterias over the weekend. It aims to provide a continuum of nutrition to youngsters in schools that have a high participation in the free and reduced school lunch program.

Second Harvest Food Bank started the Hi-Five program back in 2005 with two schools in Volusia County. This school year, we anticipate distribution exceeding 38,000 packs – The equivalent of 114,000 meals!

On another childhood related topic, 60 minutes aired a segment last night on the homeless children of Central Florida.  I urge you to take a moment to watch the segment.

Santos Maldonado
Childhood Hunger Programs Manager

February 1, 2011

Target helps add Hi-Five Kids Packs to Tangelo Elementary

Author: Maria Diestro

Last month volunteers from Target visited our Food Rescue Center facility to assemble and deliver the first allotment of Hi-Five Kids Packs to Tangelo Elementary School.

The group of Target volunteers were excited and filled with enthusiasm. The packs were completed in record time. Shortly thereafter, a caravan of cars made their way to the school, where the volunteers were greeted by Principal Tashanda Cannon-Brown and Nurse Gayle Wright.

In addition to donating time and energy into this project, Target also donated the product inside the Hi-Five Packs for Tangelo Elementary. This allows Second Harvest to provide the school with over 400 packs per month through the end of the school year.  

Second Harvest would like to thank Target and its volunteers for their commitment to combating childhood hunger and for making it possible to add one more school to our Hi-Five Kids Pack program. This brings our total number of schools to 19– more than have ever participated.

Target volunteers at Second Harvest’s Food Rescue Center:

July 16, 2010

A Better Way to Identify Hungry Children

Author: Brady Koch

A teacher looking at a classroom full of children on the first day of school might have a difficult time determining who would be in need of food assistance. The free and reduced school breakfast and lunch program, our Hi-Five weekend program, and our Kids Cafe afterschool program all help get food to these children.

There are common warning signs to look for like lethargy, inability to concentrate, and aggression, but it can still be challenging to identify the need.

A new study published this month in the journal Pediatrics, by University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers examined whether the time-consuming, 18-question Household Food Security Survey provided by the federal government could be shortened and still be effective in identifying hungry children.

They found that there were two questions you could ask that would be as effective as the entire 18 question survey.

Simple Two-Question Survey Can Better Identify Hungry Children

This is a great start to brainstorming exercises we’ve started internally to find ways to enhance our childhood programs.

What do you think of the findings of this study?