Second Harvest Food Bank invites you to participate in:

A photography contest that brings light to the invisible problem of hunger in our community and the simple solutions.

Portraits of Hunger is back! We’re calling on photographers of all experience levels to capture your vision of the simple solutions Central Floridians are finding to solve the problem of hunger in our community. It could be sharing a meal with a stranger, helping out a family in need or shooting a group of volunteers making a difference at their local food pantry. You are only limited by your vision for a hunger-free Central Florida.

Enter Photography Contest >>

Top photos will be voted by the public on http://www.PortraitsofHunger.org in September. All the photos will be showcased at Enzian’s Eden Bar on Friday, September 30 at 7:30 pm. Our three judges will decide on the winning photo and the winner will be announced that evening.

The winner of Portraits of Hunger will have their photo displayed at Enzian Theater. This is a great opportunity for a photographer to get some exposure. Thank you Enzian Theater! If you would like to shoot photos at our facility please contact Jen Gibson at jgibson@foodbankcentralflorida.org to make an appointment.

Deadline to submit photos is Friday, September 2, 2011.

For additional information contact:
Jen Gibson at jgibson@foodbankcentralflorida.org or 407-295-5009 ext 28

Source: Orlando Sentinel

Many people today are overwhelmed and frustrated with what seem to be unfixable problems, or things out of their control. Just look around at the Gulf oil spill and its long-term effects, a Gainesville pastor’s stance on the Quran, congressional issues and so many more examples, including in our own personal lives. Wouldn’t it be great if we could find something we could wrap our own hands around and make a difference?

There is a pressing problem that we all can rally around and do something about: hunger in our community. The ongoing economic situation, unemployment, under-employment and plummeting retirement accounts and property values have all created a perfect storm for emergency food assistance among a large portion of the population.

Last year, Second Harvest Food Bank’s Hunger Study showed that about 25 percent of Central Florida’s population received food assistance. That’s 732,000 people, and nearly 300,000 are children. That’s a problem. What can you do about it?

September is Hunger Action Month, an effort to fight hunger. The only way we can close the gap is with continued community assistance. You can seek out a number of local organizations that could use your support in terms of volunteering, financial assistance or food donations

At Second Harvest Food Bank, we offer you “30 Ways in 30 Days,” with activities ranging from food drives and a Junior League Harvest Hustle to our Portraits of Hunger photo contest.

All are designed to provide support for people in need and offer a variety of levels of engagement. If you can’t take action in September, the problem will still be here in October.

Everyone can help. Here’s one poignant example: One day an elementary-school girl named Alli saw some of her classmates Dumpster diving. That night, she cried to her mom that they must do something about the situation. Alli came up with a plan and in a few months raised $5,000 to help start a new Second Harvest Kids Café downtown.

To this day, that café continues to provide thousands of meals to children. Alli’s a reminder to all of us — young and old, wealthy or not — that each of us can find a way to take meaningful action in the fight against hunger. It’s a problem that can be solved.

We can make a tangible impact upon hunger relief because every can of soup, box of cereal, volunteer hour or dollar donated translates into one of the most basic needs of every person — food. Please consider taking action; it’s good for the community, and it’s good for the soul.

Dave Krepcho is president and CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.

Can you believe that we are halfway through Hunger Action Month? What actions have you taken so far from our 30 Ways in 30 Days calendar? I would love any feedback or ideas you may have on our calendar.

I have been super busy promoting our calendar via our social media channels. I am happy to report that people have been sharing my links daily. If you would like to receive updates from us … like us on facebook or follow us on twitter. We would love to interact with you via these channels.

Since there are 15 more days left of Hunger Action Month, I wanted to give you a quick rundown of some fun and quick actions you can take this week.

Today you can participate in Kraft’s Text to Give campaign. Text the word “MEALS” and your zip code to 71717 and Kraft will donate a meal to Second Harvest Food Bank. This is part of the Huddle to Fight Hunger Campaign. Everytime someone joins the huddle in Central Florida a meal gets donated to Second Harvest Food Bank. And guess what … Florida is in second place! 

On Friday, September 17 fight hunger with just one click. Download Pampered Chef’s Cookbook for a Cause for free and a meal with be donated to Feeding America. Pampered Chef’s goal is to donate 10 million pounds of food this year. You can help them reach this goal by downloading this exclusive celebrity cookbook.

You can actually do this action every day till September 23. Vote for the hunger image that moves you the most! Online voting for our Portraits of Hunger Photography contest has started. We have received over 900 votes already. Remember, you can vote as many times as you want.

We need your help in choosing the top 3 photos. After that, our 3 judges will choose the winner. The winner of Portraits will be announced along with a display of all photo entries at our showcase party. The winner will have their photo showcased at The Enzian Theater for a month!

Here are the details:
Portraits of Hunger Showcase Party
Date: Thursday, September 30, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
Location: Enzian’s Eden Bar – 1300 South Orlando Avenue, Maitland, FL 32751
Bring a food donation (non-perishable) and receive a free Peroni. 1 free Peroni per person.

Until next week! 

Maria Diestro
Online Service and Communications Manager

Hi all!

Can you believe that Hunger Action Month starts TOMORROW?? Food Banks all around the country are gearing up for an exciting September filled with many different events and programs. Of course Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida is no exception.

Our call to action this year is “30 Ways in 30 Days”. We are giving everyone in the community 30 different ways they can help fight hunger in Central Florida.

Why is Hunger Action Month important?
Approximately 1 in 5 of our population—732,000 people—needed food assistance in Central Florida last year. This is a 152% increase from 2006. The only way we can close the gap on hunger is with the community’s help. The need is tremendous in Central Florida…but so is the impact you can have.

So how can I help?

OK, here’s the deal…be sure to check out our Hunger Action Month Microsite. On this site, you will find everything you need to know about the activities happening throughout September. You will also find a downloadable copy of our “30 Ways in 30 Days” Calendar. Print it out and check out the action each day!
 
Here are some highlights…

• Hunger Action Month Kick-off: September 2nd at CRAVE Restaurant from 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm. We will be sharing our 30 ways calendar and explaining what everyone can do to take action this September.

• TAKE THE PLEDGE! The food bank that receives the most amount of pledges will receive a truckload of food from Feeding America. Take the pledge here and don’t forget to tell your friends!

• JOIN THE HUDDLE! Kraft Foods is sponsoring the “Huddle to Fight Hunger”. Along with many other initiatives, they are giving each food bank 1 meal for everyone who joins the huddle and gives a zip code in their service area. So be sure to join the huddle and give a Central Florida zip code!

• PORTRAITS OF HUNGER SHOWCASE: The winner of our Portraits of Hunger Photography contest will be announced along with a display of the photo submissions that we received for the contest. Bring a bag or box of food donations (non-perishable) and receive one ticket for a free bottle of Peroni. One free Peroni per person. We hope to see you at Enzian’s Eden Bar on Thursday, September 30! Program starts at 7:30 p.m.

I hope everyone is excited for Hunger Action Month! We would love it if you could send our Hunger Action Month e-card to your friends to let them know all about what they can do to help this September.

My personal “way” I am helping out this month is by BOGOing. Whenever I go food shopping, I will buy one for me, and get one for a family in need. I can’t wait to see what your “way” is.
 
Happy Hunger Action Month!

Sasha Hausman
Development Manager

Earlier today I ran across an image of a Surplus Commodities distribution in October of 1940 in a collection of early color photography. For those of you who’ve ever volunteered at a food pantry, this looks strikingly familiar.

Speaking of photographs, we’re looking for submissions to our 2010 Portraits of Hunger competition. It’s a great way bring visibility to the invisible face of hunger. You are only limited by your vision for a hunger-free Central Florida.

If you would like to shoot photos at our facility please contact Sasha Hausman at shausman@foodbankcentralflorida.org to make an appointment.

There will be an online contest where the top 10 photographs will be voted on by the public for Portraits of Hunger. The top 3 photos will then be displayed at our Portraits of Hunger Showcase party. Photographs will remain on our website throughout the month of September.

Be sure to browse the rest of this Depression-Era color photography collection:  http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2010/07/26/captured-america-in-color-from-1939-1943/

Brady Koch
Director of Agency Relations and Programs

During the holidays local celebrity photographer Brook Pifer came up with a creative way to join the fight against hunger.

The event was called Portraits for Food. Brooke offered to take a complimentary portrait in exchange for either a non-perishable food donation or a financial contribution made to Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. Participants ended up receiving their portraits via email. 

The event took place on Thursday, December 10 in her Orlando photo studio. Promotion for the event was done via her blog and twitter account. Brook works with celebrities, commercial clients and magazines worldwide. According to her blog, they plan to do this event again next year.

We are so grateful at how involved the Central Florida community gets during the holidays. We just wanted to share an example of how one person with a camera in hand can make a difference in our community.

Below is a video recap of that day.

BEHIND THE LENS: Portraits For Food

Below are some of the portraits taken from that day.

View the rest of the the portraits on her blog.

Maria Diestro
Online Services and Communications Manager

Our Portraits of Hunger Showcase took place on Wednesday, September 30 at Enzian’s Eden Bar.

It can be a bit unnerving not knowing who will actually show up to an event. Fortunately for us, the night was a huge success! Every seat at Eden Bar was taken. I got a chance to meet several of the photographers that submitted photos to our contest. I also got a chance to talk to some of the people that brought food donations. We are very thankful for the community support that we received that night.   

Note: We could not have pulled this event off without the help of Enzians’ staff. It seems so long ago when we actually talked about the event. They were truly a pleasure to work with.

Drumroll …

The 2009 Portraits of Hunger winner is G.K. Sharman for her photograph titled: Courage.

Top 3 photos were: Courage by G.K. Sharman, Loneliness by Bernard Juskie and Snack Time Smiles submitted by Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida, photographer Sharon Smith.

I’d like to thank our three judges for taking the time to vote for the winning photo and for participating this year. Our Contest Judges were Sara Van Arsdel, Executive Director of Orange County History Center; Josh Garrick, Media Rep & Curator for Millenia Fine Art and Dave Krepcho, President of Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.

If you didn’t get a chance to attend Portraits of Hunger, below is a slideshow of all the photos that were submitted to the contest. 

If you did attend, the slideshow below has photos taken from that night. Enjoy!

Thank you again for participating in Portraits of Hunger.  We look forward to bringing this event back next year.

If you have any suggestions on ways we can make this contest better or ways that we can improve on the showcase please leave us a comment below.

Maria Diestro
Online Services and Communications Manager

I can’t believe that Hunger Action Month is halfway over.  There are only 14 more days left in September and the days are moving fast. We aim to finish the month with a bang!  Thank you for spreading the word about Hunger Action Month. If you haven’t yet, please send this ecard to all of your family and friends and encourage them to support the fight against hunger.

Portraits of Hunger Update!  Our online voting contest ends this Friday. Drumroll .. the top three photos as of 2 p.m. this afternoon are: Snack Time Smiles, Courage, Loneliness (in no particular order). Voting ends tomorrow at 5 p.m. Click here to vote! Don’t forget that you can vote more than once.  

Its time to continue with our Hunger Action Month Ways to Fight Hunger Countdown :

#13 Way to Fight Hunger: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Sony Pictures new movie “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” is helping raise awareness about domestic hunger with children and their parents. By becoming a Hunger Helper like the characters in the movie,  kids learn about hunger and how they can make a difference in their community.  Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs hits theaters this Friday.

Feeding America has also created an area on their Web site where kids can become hunger helpers.  One feature of the site is the Food Catcher game. For every gold apple that you catch Sony will donate 1 meal to Feeding America. I have only been able to get 3 apples, I hope you can do better than me. Once you finish, you even get a certificate that you can print out with your name on it. What a creative way to get kids involved in the fight for hunger!

PSA video of Flint explaining why its fun to be a Hunger Helper:
 

#12 Way to Fight Hunger: Cheesecake Factory Drive Out Hunger Tour
During Hunger Action Month, The Cheesecake Factory will visit 30 cities in 30 days on the “Drive Out Hunger” Tour collecting soup cans in support of Feeding America and Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. David Arquette helped launch the tour in LA on September 1 (picture to the left).

 The grand finale party is going to be in Washington D.C. on September 30. We hope you get involved in this amazing campaign.

There are 3 ways that you can participate:

1. Orlando Tour Stop. The Drive Out Hunger Tour will be at the Cheesecake Factory at The Mall of Millenia on Monday, September 21 from 7 a.m til 10 p.m.  The first 500 people that bring in 2 cans of soup will get a free slice of Stefanie’s Ultimate Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake. XL106.7 will also be there providing some entertainment. Tamar Kaprelian – a former Cheesecake Factory staff member, now an accomplished singer/songwriter – will also be there.  Her hit song, “New Day” was featured on the popular MTV series “The Hills,” and is now the driving anthem behind the ‘Drive Out Hunger’ Tour. A portion of her song’s sales are going to Feeding America in September. 
 
2. You Dine, We Donate Event. Just bring 2 cans of soup when you dine on September 30th, and Cheescake Factory will donate 10% of your check to Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.

3. Buy Stefanie’s Ultimate Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake. When you buy a slice, Cheesecake Factory will done 25 cents to Feeding America. If you buy online, Cheesecake Factory will donate a $1.

Stop by the Drive Out Hunger Web site for full details of this campaign. Make sure to check out the map of where the bus tour is now and also the photo mosaic from photos of people at each of the stops. I hope to see you bright and early on Monday morning at the Cheesecake Factory at Millenia Mall!

Maria Diestro
Online Services and Communications Manager