November 9, 2011

A Magical Future for Hunger Relief in Central Florida

Author: Greg Higgerson

It was a morning of great celebration at Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.  In a very special ceremony outside our loading dock, one of our longest-serving and best corporate partners came by for a look back at our history together, and also brought the Food Bank one step closer to realizing its future vision for the community – by announcing a $500,000 gift and pledging to give us 20,000 pounds of fresh produce during the next year.

For twenty years, Walt Disney World has reached out to help Central Floridians in need through support of the Food Bank’s mission.  The company is one of very few that literally  helps the Food Bank in every manner possible—through incredible food donations, through financial support, and through volunteerism. Disney’s deep and enduring support of hunger relief has directly touched hundreds of thousands of lives in our community over the past two decades. 

Children, seniors, working poor families, homeless, and others have received the vital food assistance they needed because of this generosity.  To help keep that nutritious help going, this morning we learned of a new commitment from Disney to provide an additional 20,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables over and above the normal prepared and perishable food donations received daily through their Disney Harvest program. These products are the very food items that low income families cannot afford on their own, and represent added health and vitality for all who will receive them. Read More …

May 2, 2011

Publix Announces Exclusive Partnership With Second Harvest Food Bank

Author: Lauren Moskowitz

On April 27^th, Publix announced an exclusive partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida to help fight hunger in Central Florida by donating nutritious, perishable surplus foods.  Wholesome items like produce, fresh protein and dairy products are always in high demand, and Publix’s participation in the food bank’s Grocery Alliance Program will hugely impact the variety and quantity of Second Harvest’s perishable inventory. 

A fleet of refrigerated vehicles will be used to collect the food, twice weekly, from each of Publix’s Central Florida locations.  The food will then be distributed to local pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, senior programs and low-income daycares. 

Following the announcement, Publix also provided Second Harvest with a  check donation of $96,000 resulting from their 2010 holiday Food For All campaign.  The donation will provide 864,000 meals for those in need. Read More …

March 23, 2011

Osceola Produce and Baked Goods Drop

Author: Erin Gray

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

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

October 19, 2009

Produce to the People!

Author: Brady Koch

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: