September 3, 2010

Bring Your Class to Glean for Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida

Author: Brady Koch

Hello,

Looking for a great way to inspire your students, but can’t find the funds you need to make it happen? Check out the Target® Field Trip Grants program.

Target is working with non-profit organizations to spread the word about Field Trip Grants. This year, Target will award 5,000 grants of up to $700 to help fund field trips to great educational destinations.

Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida partners with The Society of St. Andrew to glean excess produce from farms and provide them to the hungry in our community.  School groups are able to participate in gleanings at local farms while incorporating a variety of lesson plans including: 

- Agriculture
- Nutrition
- Migrant Issues
- Civics

We would be excited if your class would apply for a field trip grant to visit a local produce farm. All food gleaned from these field trips would be donated to Second Harvest and then distributed throughout the community.

Winter/Spring Gleaning Schedule  2010 – 2011

 January   
Variety of citrus in most counties throughout Central Florida
Cabbage in Lake County

 February
Variety of citrus in most counties throughout Central Florida
Cabbage in Lake County

 March
Variety of citrus in most counties throughout Central Florida
Cabbage in Lake County
Strawberries in Hillsborough County

April
Variety of citrus in most counties throughout Central Florida
Cabbage, cucumbers in Lake County
Strawberries, squash, zucchini, eggplant in Hillsborough County

 May 
Corn, cucumbers, cabbage, squash in Lake County
Squash, melons in Hillsborough County
Citrus in Volusia County

 Want to learn more and apply for a Target Field Trip Grant? Visit www.Target.com/grants for details.

Have a great school year,

Brady Koch
Director of Agency Relations and Programs

February 24, 2010

Produce to the People

Author: Erin Gray

On January 30th, Second Harvest Food Bank and New Covenant Church participated in our Produce to the People Program. Through this partnership with New Covenant Church, we were able to provide more food to individuals in Orange County on this day. Since the church is located in a part of East Orange County where there are few food pantries, the food distributed was made available to many that normally would not receive it.

This was our sixth Produce to the People mobile drop that we have enlisted our partner agencies to be a part of. With this program, Second Harvest Food Bank drops off ten pallets of fruits, vegetables and bakery items at a mobile location. These items usually have a short shelve life span or are perishable. 

The majority of the produce we received was from the gleaning that the Society of St. Andrews volunteers collected. New Covenant Church received two pallets of potatoes and three pallets of oranges that were recently gleaned from farms. The remaining pallets for the agency’s distribution were two pallets of bottled juice and four pallets of assorted bread and bakery products.  

700+ families showed up at New Covenant for the normal Saturday distribution only to find that there were an additional 11 pallets of fresh items waiting for them to take home. Both New Covenant Church and its clients were extremely happy to be receiving this additional food.

Because of our Partnership with our Partner Agencies, donors and people like Society of St. Andrews, we were able be a part of the Fight to End Hunger.

Slideshow:

Erin Gray
Agency Relations Manager