One of the coolest things about my job is getting to meet all the different people that volunteer with us. We have quite a range of volunteer opportunities at Second Harvest. Our board members, committee members and event helpers are all volunteers. So besides important tasks like strategy, planning, and running the food bank’s mission, our volunteers spend lots of time sorting food at our Food Rescue Center.

On average, we can have close to 50 volunteers on a daily basis. This week alone, we have volunteers  from Universal Orlando, Marriott, Panera Bread, Nike Outlet, UCF, Walt Disney World and Dean, Ringers, Morton and Lawton helping out at our Food Rescue Center.

All of these volunteers come in to help us sort and pack up donations. They help us organize, check expiration dates and basically make sure that what is going out to our partner agencies is safe and of quality. I can’t imagine what we would do if we didn’t have these volunteers.

Last year alone, we had over 10,000 volunteers contribute more than 35,000 volunteer hours at the Food Bank. The estimated value of a volunteer’s time is $21.36. That means our volunteers helped us save more than $700,000.

This allows us to better serve our community and work towards our mission to alleviate hunger!  Huge thanks to all of our volunteers!!

Mindy Ortiz
Volunteer Services & Food Drive Manager

We are so grateful to have so many wonderful organizations coordinate food drives for Second Harvest Food Bank during the holidays. We wanted to take a moment to highlight one of these groups. Central Florida Preparatory students spent a month giving back to various organizations in Central Florida. Below is a small write up and some photos from their month of charity.  

Central Florida Preparatory School Participates in a Month of Charity
 
When Mrs. Ramos asked students, “How can we help neighbors who are distressed with hardship this season?”  She received overwhelming response.  While students recognized a need for shelter, clothing, and monetary contributions, they all agreed that no one should go hungry.  From that class discussion, sprouted wide spread excitement about the opportunity to help the less fortunate in Central Florida.

The entire school, which houses students from Pre-Kindergarten thru High School, took part in a month of charity.  Hundreds of Central Florida Preparatory students participated in a “Tis the Season to Give” Food Drive, which collected nearly 1,000 pounds of food to benefit the many Central Florida Residents afflicted with hunger.  Further students expressed charity through Art, Language, Volunteerism and Self Expression. 

Pre-schoolers drew pictures about charity, while first graders participated in Macy’s “Letters to Santa” to benefit Make-a-Wish Foundation which grants wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions. 

All food proceeds were donated to Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.  Central Florida Preparatory School is a non-profit non-sectarian private school located in Orange County and in the Southwest Orlando area.  “Tis the Season to Give” Food Drive ran through December, 2010.

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

Yesterday we went to the unveiling of the world’s largest structure made of canned food at Walt Disney World! The massive sculpture titled “Celebrate Volunteers” was unveiled as part of a special “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” celebration honoring family volunteers and the spirit of giving at Epcot’s World Showcase.

It took about 500 hours of volunteer work to construct and shape the 44 tons of food into the Disney character structure. All 115,000 cans that it took to make the structure will make its way back to Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. The food will be sorted and shared with other Feeding America food banks in our network!

We were so happy and honored to be at such a wonderful event, Kermit and Ty Pennington (host of ABC’s Extreme Makeover) were even there! A big thanks to Disney and all the volunteers who helped create, build, and pack up the giant structure!!

Pictures:

Video from DisneyParks Blog

 
Sasha Hausman
Events Specialist

In addition to the Salvation Army and the KISS army, one of my favorite armies is the Second Harvest Hunger Study Army of volunteers. To complete the Hunger in Central Florida 2010 study, we utilized the services of nearly 100 dedicated volunteers who were willing to do one of the toughest assignments we have at the food bank: ask people questions.

Beginning in the Winter of 2009, we put out the call to volunteers who could commit to a two hour training, in addition to driving to one of our partner sites and interviewing a random sample of clients for about 30 minutes each.

Our volunteers came from all walks of life. Retirees, professionals, foundation heads, staff, our board of directors, and others all attended the training and were able to ask the 80 survey questions identically to preserve the integrity of the study. We were surprised at how many of our volunteers had participated in the 2006 survey. In speaking with them, they found the process very rewarding.

Hunger in Central Florida took over 500 volunteer hours to complete. Each interview averaged out to half an hour and like I wrote earlier, the most difficult part of the job wasn’t the noise of the location or working in the rain, it was asking difficult questions.

Many of the questions are simple ”how many people are in your family?, what is your age?, do you currently receive food stamps?” Questions like “Have you had to choose between food and medicine in the past month” and “Have your children had to go to bed without eating this week” can really challenge both the volunteer and interviewee. Every time we complete the study, volunteers speak with us about how emotionally draining the survey can be.

That’s why our Hunger Study Army is such a unique group of volunteers. They are not be fighting hunger by working with the food in our warehouse, they are fighting hunger by helping us tell the story of hunger in Central Florida to the community.

You don’t have to wait until our next study in 2013 to volunteer, contact Mindy Ortiz at mortiz@foodbankcentralflorida.org to learn how we can use your help today.

Brady Koch
Director of Agency Relations & Programs