Second Harvest Food Bank What Does Hunger

Second Harvest Food Bank

What does hunger look like? The image many people hold of what hunger is and who it afflicts does not reflect reality. With changing economic conditions in Florida, as well as the entire country, the face of hunger now reflects the images of our friends and neighbors. It is the mission of Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida to battle hunger in Central Florida in order to achieve freedom from hunger in the region.

There are several objectives and activities established by Second Harvest in order to work toward achieving a hunger-free Central Florida. One of the most primary activities conducted by the Food Bank is the provision access to grocery items and food to individuals and families in need. Recipients of this service are diverse and do not fit into one mold, whether it be, race, age-group, or perceived social class.

Another main activity of Second Harvest Food Bank is the provision of promotion and support for the program development of partner agencies. This support fosters the ability of these agencies to fulfill their own missions through cooperation and a sense of community connectedness. Second Harvest provides support to the development of other agencies by offering help with the design and implementation of program initiatives aimed at reducing hunger and poverty in the community.

Second Harvest also works toward bringing community attention to the problems of poverty and hunger, which often exist hidden and invisible due to shame and stigmas. By illuminating these issues and bringing public awareness to their existence and severity, Second Harvest mobilizes communities and leaders into action to remedy hunger. Also, the problem of hunger within central Florida manifests and presents itself in different ways in different communities and populations. This necessitates program approaches tailored according to the specific needs of the individuals within the community and the adoption of holistic strategies that take several factors into account in the fight against poverty.

The most central activity for Second Harvest in the fight against hunger is food distribution to those in need. This program depends primarily on donations from food manufacturers and distributers of products that do not meet standards set out by the industry. These products generally do not meet standards because of issues such as overruns, mistakes in quality control, discontinuation, and errors in labeling. These donations are then collected, stored and distributed by Second Harvest to partner agencies. This opportunity to donate can actual help businesses in reducing their waste, storage, and costs of dumping while providing products that help out individuals and families in need of assistance.

There is a severe need for the services of Second Harvest food Bank in Central Florida. Krepcho (2011) outlined the main reasons that Central Florida is in need of accessibility to food and grocery products. It is described by Krepcho (2011) that the Orlando area is tenth most hardest hit region in the country for food hardship. This ranking is due to the fact that 23.6% of people within this region are struggling to provide themselves and their families with adequate food, and it is explained how this statistic is higher than both state and national averages (Krepcho, 2011). The Orlando region also has the highest rate of childhood hunger and poverty in the state of Florida as well as the entire country, and in Central Florida one in four children are in hunger (Krepcho, 2011). Overall, the poverty rate in Central Floridais very high, with 20% of the population living in poverty.

Childhood Hunger in Orlando and Entire U.S.

Furthermore, hunger rates in Central Florida are on the rise. The Hunger Study for Central Florida (2009) conducted by the USDA and Economic Research services indicated that Florida is ranked as the state with the highest increase in recent years in families experiencing hunger. The number of people receiving assistance from Second Harvest in 2004 was 298,000, and this number grew drastically in 2009 to 732,000, which represented a growth of 152%.