It feels like just yesterday I was just finalizing our 30 Ways in 30 Days Hunger Action Month calendar.  I am devoting this blog post to all those who got involved with this year’s HAM and thanking everyone that helped make it happen. This year we did some new and exciting things to help raise awareness about hunger in our community.

The goal of our calendar was to show that even small actions can make a deep impact on the problem of hunger. We were super excited to receive a lot of positive feedback and can’t wait to make next year even bigger and better!

Hunger Action Month would not be possible without the support of our community partners.  They held partial proceeds nights at their restaurants, donated food, organized events for us and even let us join in their monthly community events. All our partners were very supportive and helped get the word out about Hunger Action Month.

 Thank you!

This year we also pushed the color of hunger relief, Orange.  Huge thanks to everyone that wore Orange in September in support of Hunger Action Month. 

Below is a slideshow of orange shirts that were worn during HAM:

A special thanks to the City of Orlando! The City got involved and lit the Lake Eola Fountain Orange!

“The City of Orlando is lighting the iconic fountain in Downtown’s Lake Eola Park the color orange this September in support of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida’s Hunger Action Month campaign,” says Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer.  “The City is committed to draw attention to help address the problem of hunger and poverty in Central Florida. We hope that the orange glow of the fountain will prompt local citizens to take the pledge to fight hunger and do what  they can to help feed those in need in our community.”

This year we also launched http://www.CFLHungerAction.org! We will continue to use the site to highlight future events and to post community food drives. So make sure to check back soon because the fall is always filled with so many amazing events that the Central Florida community puts together for us.  

Thank you for helping to Fight Hunger and Feed Hope this September!

We hope you continue to follow us this fall. Below are some links that will help keep you updated:

• Like us on Facebook
• Follow us on Twitter
• Receive our E-news
• Sign up for a Food for Thought Tour

Did you like our 30 Ways in 30 Days Calendar? What other types of events would you like to see more of next year during Hunger Action Month?

Maria Diestro
Online Services and Communications Manager

Our intern Melissa Kear, wraps up Hunger Action Month in this latest blog post. 

October is just around the corner, and with it (we hope!) comes cooler weather! Using our 30 Ways in 30 Days calendar, you can count down the last days of September and support Hunger Action Month every day of the week.

If you haven’t had a chance to visit our main facility for one of our popular Food for Thought Tours, please plan to join us Wednesday, September 21, 2011  6 pm for a special Food Bank tour of Second Harvest Food Bank. RSVP is required at CFLHungerAction.org. Spend one very interesting  hour with us learning about hunger in Central Florida and what Second Harvest is doing to help.

Celebrate Thursday with pizza! NYPD Pizza’s College Park location will be donating 15% of your bill to the food bank from 4-10pm when you mention “Second Harvest”.  Who knew you could give back while munching on your favorite NYPD Pizza slice, and what a great way to mark off your calendar!

Want to do more to help fight hunger? Take Friday and set up a time to volunteer at Second Harvest!  Find out more about volunteering opportunities at FeedHopeNow.org, and learn what you can do to help support your community. What better way to strike Friday off your calendar than by taking a step to be more involved in helping to fight hunger.

If you have extra time Saturday, help support Hunger Action Month by taking a quick shopping trip to pick up and donate critical need items.  Some of these items included: meals in a can, canned tuna, nonfat dry milk, peanut butter, oatmeal, nutritional drinks, dry beans, evaporated milk, canned vegetables, canned soups, pastas, rice, and baby food.  These items are all important in providing nutritional foods to those in need, and in many cases can be found in your local grocery store’s buy one get one free deals.

Sunday, register your school food drive and get a free toolkit. It’s an easy and efficient way to give back and help your community.  If registering and running a food drive isn’t in your schedule, check out our calendar to find other local food drives and how you can help support them and your community.

The start of a workweek can be a little crazy, so if you are short on time Monday, head over to our website, where you can donate a gift to help hunger.  Every dollar donated can provide up to $9 worth of food, so whether you can spare a little or a lot, your donation will be making a difference!

In case you can’t make our Wednesday’s Food for Thought Tour, join us Tuesday the 27th at 11:30 am to make our last tour of September.  Remember to RSVP at CFLHungerAction.org to join us for an hour tour of the food bank.  We look forward to seeing you!

Your support for Hunger Action Month has been amazing, and we are excited to see Central Florida come together to help fight hunger.  From September 18th – September 24th, Downtown Orlando will be lighting the Fountain at Lake Eola orange in support of Hunger Action Month, so take some time to stroll around the lake, reflect on the events of this month, and send us all of your pictures by the orange lighted fountain on Facebook or share them with us on Twitter, and thank you again for all that you do to support Hunger Action Month and Second Harvest Food Bank.

Melissa Kear
Second Harvest Food Bank intern

I just met with part of our team at Second Harvest and they talked about the people they are helping that need food.

The faces are haunting indeed; they include more single people from broken marriages, folks that a few months ago had a job but no longer do, more injured vets as they come home, and a special audience….the blind, deaf and mute. The procession continues….

Thank you once again for your support, you can see what a difference it makes in people who are less fortunate. If there’s any saving grace in this blog, it’s the fact that your support helped our team get millions of meals to people this past year.

If you are just discovering Second Harvest and want to become involved, please contact me, come on a tour or check out more of the website for ways in which you can make a difference.

Thank you.

Dave Krepcho
President/CEO

Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, in conjunction with Feeding America and 205 other food banks nationwide are participating in the Second Annual Hunger Action Month. The goal of this month is to mobilize people everywhere to get involved with fighting hunger in America.

One in Eight Americans struggle with hunger.  That’s why Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida is asking everyone to participate in our 30 Ways in 30 Days campaign. Giving a little this month, will help feed alot.

I will be counting down our 30 day calendar in weekly posts. Updated information, interviews, photos and videos will be posted to go along with our 30 Ways in 30 Days Calendar.

Lets get this countdown started!  Below are 4 things you can do this week:

#28 Attend a Food for Thought
Did you know that we offer informational tours of the food bank? We call these tours Food For Thought. They take place several times a month and we feed you lunch or breakfast (depending on the time of the tour). 

 If this is something that interests you, please make sure you RSVP online.  This session is a great way to learn about hunger in Central Florida and what Second Harvest Food Bank is doing to help.

#27 Contribute Funds
Funds are one of the four most important ways (funds, food, volunteering, and advocacy) that you can help fight hunger. For every $1 donated, up to $9 worth of grocery products are provided to Central Floridians in need. 97.1% of every dollar donated to Second Harvest goes straight to feeding people. Even a small donation can make a BIG impact. Donate Today >>

#26 Martial Artists Fighting Hunger – The Gauntlet
Martial Artists Fighting Hunger are hosting a fundraiser for us on Saturday, September 5 at Lyman High School. What exactly is The Gauntlet?  The video below will explain it all for you.

A huge thanks to Steve Blanton for all his hard work in organizing this event. Steve Blanton is the founder and Commissioner of comBATON and tournament director of all comBATON tournaments including the championships at the Disney Martial Arts Festival in Orlando, Florida. 

If you practice Martial Arts or have friends that do, we hope to see you or them on Saturday at Lyman High School. Full details here >>

#25 Follow us on Twitter
We started a twitter account 6 months ago  and have recently surpassed 1,000 followers!  If you have an account, you can follow us at @2HarvestCFL 

If you already follow us on twitter, you can help spread the message about Hunger Action Month with the following tweets:

• 1 in 8 Americans struggle with Hunger. YOU have the power to make a difference! 30 Ways/30 Days Calendar: http://bit.ly/QkDdc #hungeraction
• September is Hunger Action Month: http://bit.ly/laSqV What are you going to do? #hungeraction
• Give a little, Feed A lot. September is Hunger Action Month: http://bit.ly/laSqV

That concludes this week’s actions. If you want to take a peek at next week’s actions the full calendar can be viewed online. Let us know what you think? We are open to suggestions and criticism.

until next week,
Maria Diestro
Online Services and Communications Manager
Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida

p.s. Don’t forget to share this information with your Friends!