December 16, 2010

Meet our Feeding Partner: The Sharing Center

Author: Erin Gray

Last year, Second Harvest utilized  nearly 500 partner feeding programs to distribute 24 million pounds of food into the community. The Sharing Center is doing their part to fight hunger in Seminole County.

The Sharing Center has locations in Sanford and in Longwood. Last year alone, they helped over 51,000 people with food and other services.   I visited the Longwood location the second week of December and met with Don Warner, the Pantry Supervisor of both sites.
The holidays are especially busy at The Sharing Center. For Thanksgiving, they distributed 2000 baskets, and plan on distributing the same amount for the Christmas Holiday.  In addition to the Christmas baskets, The Sharing Center started a “shoe card” program this year.  The Sharing Center has been purchasing and receiving donated gift cards to discount shoe stores.  They will give gift cards to each child living in the household, up to 19 years old.

The Sharing Center has a large group of volunteers that help out at the pantry.  Many of the volunteers go back to the pantry to volunteer on a repetitive basis because of the enjoyment they receive.

If you are interested in learning more about the Sharing Center please follow this link:  http://www.thesharingcenter.org/

Erin Gray
Agency Relations Manager

September 21, 2010

Agency Spotlight: Collins Cupboard

Author: Maria Diestro

This week we are spotlighting Collins Cupboard at the Lighthouse Christian Church in Deland, Florida, run by Robin and Gene Campbell. The pantry distributed food to 674 households and 2334 individual people last quarter.

Collins Cupboard sends volunteers every Monday to the Volusia Branch warehouse to help unload and put away the truckload of food that arrives from Second Harvest’s main facility in Orlando. We have never asked for this, but are grateful for the help.  

In addition to being a first class partner agency, Collins Cupboard falls into the super volunteer category. They volunteer for Scouting for Food, Wesh TV’s Share your Christmas and pretty much anytime we could use a hand … they are always ready to help us out.

 Here are some photos of Collins Cupboard in action:

 Below is a photo of them unloading a trailer full of food.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
A happy recipient leaving the pantry with bags of food.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 
Collins Cupboard crew serving a spaghetti meal. The proceeds went to their pantry. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second Harvest Food Bank distributes food to over 600 feeding partners in six counties. Collins Cupboard is 1 of 90 agencies that we currently partner with in Volusia County. Their passion for fighting hunger and helping their neighbors is truly unmatched. We salute Robin and Gene and all their friends at Collins Cupboard, and all our partner agencies in Volusia County—keep up the incredible work!

 If you are a Volusia resident and would like to visit our facility, and a learn a little bit more about hunger in Central Florida, please sign up for a Food for Thought Tour at our Volusia branch.

Maria Diestro
Online Services and Communications Manager

July 21, 2010

Almost a third of U.S. children are overweight, but many are also hungry?

Author: Maria Ali

Almost a third of U.S. children are overweight, but many are also hungry? Does it make sense?

Click here to read more: Eating Nutritiously A Struggle When Money Is Scarce

This article highlights some of the complexities of hunger in America. It’s not just about getting enough food, but getting enough of the right kinds of food, as well as understanding the importance of making the right choices.

It can be very challenging to eat healthy on a tight budget, but have we considered what price we are paying to not eat healthy? What price are our children paying? What affect has it had on our communities?

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack stated  there is a similarity between low-income families trying to stretch scarce food dollars with high-calorie processed foods, “and youngsters who are just flat out not getting fed because their parents don’t have the resources to feed them.”

Elaine Livas, who runs Project SHARE, a food pantry in Pa., expressed that there’s something else to consider. As the nation becomes more health conscious, she’s noticing less healthy food coming to her pantry. She’s getting more sugar-coated cereals, for example, than the high-fiber ones she used to receive. “We can’t really complain that the poor are heavier, when what we’re donating is our kind of castaways,” she says.

What are your thoughts?

Maria Ali, RD, LD/N
Nutrition Manager

June 10, 2010

My Volunteer Experience at Jewish Family Services

Author: Greg Higgerson

Today I had the privilege of getting my hands dirty and working up a sweat as a volunteer at the Dave Pearlman Food Pantry at Jewish Family Services of Greater Orlando (JFS).  

To take nothing away from the fine work of the more than 600 partner feeding programs to whom our Food Bank distributes food each year in Central Florida, I have always been enormously impressed with the work of JFS.   Led by a true humanitarian, Barry Kudlowitz, this caring group of staff and volunteers provide a place where people in crisis can get some relief.   

And not just food relief.  JFS provides a wide range of services designed to help people ‘cover their bases’ on a number of important fronts.  This kind of help is very often all a person needs to get back on his/her feet and move forward in life.

I arrived not really knowing what to expect, but quickly learned the ropes from a true veteran of JFS; a 21-year old young man named Eton (say “Ay-tahn”).  Eton has been volunteering since he was 12—that’s not a typo.  He was very knowledgeable, and explained the mixture of foods I would be packing into brown paper grocery bags.  The system was very well-thought out and organized.  Together we prepared a dozen or so bags of food, and Eton’s shift came to a close.  He bid me farewell, and left me to fend for myself.  

 After only a few minutes, the first intercom buzzer went off and a voice on the wall said “I need two sets plus government.”  That meant two sets of the normal “two bag” portion for families, plus some of the USDA government commodity food they had on hand.  Each bag also contained some frozen protein (chicken or beef) and frozen bakery products.  I quickly hustled these items to the lobby in a shopping cart, where a young couple with a baby were waiting.  With many thanks from them, I helped carry their bags to the car.  

As I returned to the pantry room, I reflected how bare the shelves of the small room seemed.  JFS’s van driver, Jerry, picks up a vanload of food once a week (on Thursdays) from Second Harvest Food Bank to restock the shelves.    Around noon, the weekly bounty arrived.  I helped Jerry unpack approximately 3,000 pounds of canned vegetables, fruits, soups, stews, pastas, frozen meat and fish, noodles, cereal.   

While he worked to re-stock, I was called upon several more times for bags to the lobby.  I was struck by how “normal” and everyday folks the people who received the food were.  And also by how grateful they were to receive the help.

I went back to packing more bags.  Remembering what Eton had taught me about packing each bag earlier in the day, I found myself almost desperate in my temptation to break the rules and add a few more cans, a few more boxes, a little more meat to each of the bags I was packing.  In my head I knew that doing so would deplete the pantry more quickly than they could replenish it, but my heart wanted to do it just the same.  I decided to respect the rules so that the food could last.   (Note to self:  This community needs LOTS MORE donated food!)

I walked away appropriately tired, and greatly moved.  I was grateful to experience a small part of the incredible work that happens at JFS on a daily basis. My sincere thanks to Barry Kudlowitz, Adrienne Cooperman, Marni Chepenik, Es Cohen, Karen Broussard, Jerry the driver, Eton, and all the JFS staff for their caring work and for making me feel valuable today. 

Keep up the good work, guys!

Greg Higgerson
VP of Development

May 3, 2010

Second Harvest Holds First Agency ADEPT Conference

Author: Erin Gray

Last week we held our first ever Agency ADEPT Conference and we had it located in Volusia County at Prince of Peace Catholic Church, we had about 30 people in attendance. 

I thought I would give my perspective of the day.  There were 9 different classes offered by the staff at Second Harvest.  The classes I had taught were Perfect Pantry and Non Profit Ethics. 

I had about a dozen people in each class and we talked about how to run a pantry and what we look for when we are monitoring and when we accept new agencies.  In the ethics class we talked about general ethics and then I went over our Memorandum of Agreement (which is our contract for our partner agencies) to help them understand it and helped relate it to the topic of ethics.  

In addition to my classes we offered two nutrition courses and even a class on how our agencies can start their own blogs and Twitter accounts.

The entire day was a lot of fun and filled of so much energy with the staff members from Second Harvest and from the volunteers and staff from our Partner Agencies.  From talking to the different agencies and staff it seemed like it was a huge success and we look forward to bringing this concept to the different agencies that we work with in the different Counties in the future.  I was happy to be a part of the very first one that we had.

Erin Gray
Agency Relations Manager