Who is Hungry in Florida?

According to US Census data, Florida 's population has grown 19.5% while the number of people in poverty has grown 43% in the past decade. Many of Florida 's children go to bed hungry at night, even in the most affluent counties of Florida . Hunger remains a serious problem for a sizable number of Floridians.

The number of families in need of help with basic food in Florida continues to grow. The fastest growing segment of families in need are the ones that have at least one family member working, and in some cases, working more than one job. There are varying degrees of poverty.

The Florida Association of Food Banks ( FAFB ) was established in January 1993 and is a 501c (3) organization, committed to making sure that families that need food can get it in a dignified manner and in a way that serves as a real safety net for those who fall on difficult times.

Their 16 member food banks serve all 67 counties in the state of Florida . FAFB is affiliated with America 's Second Harvest) [insert link to http://www.secondharvest.org ] who has a nationally recognized food distribution system and has 200 member food banks throughout the country.

• Nearly 3 million elderly persons are served by the America's Second Harvest Network each year. 21.5% of client households have at least one member who is age 65 or over, and 52% of these households are food insecure - an estimated 1.2 million households.
• 52% of all client households with seniors are food insecure, and 65% of these households live in poverty.
• Among all client households with at least one senior, 11.7% use senior brown bag programs, 18.3% attend senior nutrition sites (such as senior centers that serve lunch) and 5.7% receive home-delivered meals or meals-on-wheels.
• 28.7% of client households with seniors indicated that they have had to choose between food and medical care and 31% had to choose between food and paying for heat/utilities.

Collectively, the FLORIDA ASSOCIATION OF FOOD BANKS distributed over 60 million pounds of food to Floridians in Fiscal year 2004-2005 alone.

Most people think of a food bank as a charitable organization which stores and distributes donated food and other products. What many do not know is that this food is then distributed to a variety of community agencies that serve people in need.

Food banks provide food to other community based agencies that directly provide food to low-income families in need at no cost to the families in need. The agencies generally have limited warehouse space from which they serve a very small geographic area. Therefore, they rely on food banks to act as the storage faculty or depository of emergency food.

Additionally, food banks in Florida play a critical role at the front lines of our emergency preparedness. When the four hurricanes hit last year, Daily Bread Food Bank was there working with local agencies to make sure displaced citizens were provided food. In conjunction with Florida 's emergency management team, food banks play a crucial role when there are community emergencies.

There are approximately twenty-four food banks in Florida . Some are very small and have rural operations; some are large enough to store and distribute many millions of pounds of food each year. In Florida , most rural counties do not have a food bank located in their county and are served by a food bank in another county. Therefore, food banks often serve several counties.

Women continue to disproportionately experience hunger, representing nearly two-thirds of adults seeking food assistance.

Everyday many hungry Americans make impossible choices between the essentials of living. 45% have to choose between paying utilities or buying food. More than 35% choose between buying food and paying their rent or mortgage.

In 1980, America’s Second Harvest of the Big Bend (A2HBB) began and through the years, A2HBB has continued to serve the hungry men, women, and children of Leon, Gadsden, Madison, Taylor, Wakulla, Franklin, Liberty, Jefferson, Bay, Jackson, Holmes, Washington, Gulf, and Calhoun Counties. The main warehouse is located in Tallahassee, and a branch warehouse operates in Madison County and A2HBB provides free delivery door to door throughout the 14 counties.
Last year, the Food Bank and its Madison Branch distributed almost five million pounds of food in 2002 throughout the fourteen county region.

Lutheran Social Services was founded on the premise of feeding the hungry. In fact, the Second Harvest Food Bank was LSS' first program. Today, the Food Bank is the repository for food to more than 375 sharing agencies across Jacksonville and Northeast Florida. LSS is part of the America's Second Harvest Network of Food Banks - the largest hunger relief organization in the US.

The All Faiths Food Bank is a network of people working together 365 days a year to fight hunger throughout Sarasota and DeSoto counties. The All Faiths Food Bank distributes approximately 2.5 million pounds of food a year through its not-for-profit agency partners who operate feeding/hunger relief programs in the two counties. That's equivalent to 166,000 meals per month.

40% of the people served have at least one working member in their household. Many are single parents trying to raise their children on one income. Statistically, of children under age six in female-headed families, 59% are poor.

Children should be left to focus on education, not food: 38% of the people served are children; 16% are elderly, often having to choose between buying medicine or food.

The Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida is a private, non-profit organization that collects, stores and distributes donated food to approximately 500 non-profit member agencies in 11 Central Florida counties: Brevard, Indian River, Lake, Marion, Martin, Okeechobee, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, St. Lucie and Volusia.

A comprehensive study of hunger was conducted in 1997 by the Second Harvest National Food Bank Network and the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. This study confirmed that hunger in our community is real, it is pervasive, and it greatly diminishes all who are touched by it. Among other things, the study found that one in ten Central Floridians finds it necessary to seek assistance with food at some time during each year. The populations found to be at the highest risk of being hungry in our society are women, children, and the working poor: 46% of those who receive assistance with food are children; 50% of households seeking food assistance have at least one member working full time; 13% of people needing help with food are low-income senior citizens.
Some are homeless, and others are simply hardworking low-wage earners who have experienced a financial crisis. Most never expected to need help.

The Harry Chapin Food Bank is a non-profit charity dedicated to eradicating hunger and it's many causes and another affiliate of the America's Second Harvest National Food Bank Network. There are thousands of hungry people in Southwest Florida and millions more across America. The Food Bank serves the people of Collier, Charlotte, Hendry, Glades, and Lee counties and operates five days a week out of a 30,000 square foot facility centrally located near downtown Fort Myers. The facilities include a warehouse with seven loading docks, 34,000 cubic feet of refrigerated storage, five offices, a volunteer training and board room, and a break area for employees and volunteers.

With a family of four distribution centers, the reclamation center, and over 800 affiliated agencies, Daily Bread Food Bank is now able to distribute over one million pounds of food to hungry people in its community each month. Daily Bread Food Bank provided over 16 million pounds of food last year to 800 different charitable feeding programs throughout Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe Counties. This food benefits: Needy Children; Working Poor; People Who Are Physically or Mentally Ill or Challenged; Single Mothers; Homeless Individuals and Families; Elderly People; People Living with HIV/AIDS.

The Mission of the Treasure Coast Food Bank, Inc. is to improve the quality of life within the service district of Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee and St. Lucie Counties. The Food Bank procures, warehouses and distributes food and personal items to targeted individuals, nonprofit (501c3) agencies and recognized denominations that feed people at no charge. Additionally, the Treasure Coast Food Bank is a partner in disaster services relief for the service district and distributes more than 1,260,000 meals annually to those in need by way of approximately 135 nonprofit agencies on the Treasure Coast and in Okeechobee County, Florida. TCFB also supplies USDA commodity products to over 55,000 eligible households annually in Indian River, Martin and St. Lucie Counties through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP).

LSS Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Florida

The Lutheran Social Services food program began in 1979 as the Nourishment Network, but became the Food Bank in1981 as its services expanded. In 1984, the Food Bank became a certified member of the national organization Second Harvest.

Recovered Food Sharing : More than three million pounds of donated and rescued surplus food are distributed to more than 350 non profit agencies; churches and synagogues, youth services, day care and rehabilitation centers that operate food services, soup kitchens or pantries. Food donations for this program come from corporations, churches, foundations, grocery stores, charitable organizations and other Food Banks.

Kids Café: provides free and prepared food and nutrition education to hungry children. Prepared and perishable foods are collected from participating restaurants and stores in the community and delivered to each of the Kids Cafe sites. Staff and volunteers develop
menus and purchase the necessary products for the Cafes. Additional volunteers assist the children with homework and other planned activities.

Working together with agency host sites, the Jacksonville Kids Cafes offer children in low-income neighborhoods a safe place to find nourishment, meet role models and participate in activities designed to enhance both their educational and social development. There are currently 65 Kids Cafe sites.

First Coast Food Runners: help supplement the Kids Cafe program and on-site feeding agencies by providing pick-up and delivery services of donated prepared and perishable foods. Area restaurants work collectively with First Coast Food Runners to prevent the disposal of quality food and to help feed hungry children in our community.

The Hunger Cycle

Perhaps the time has come to analyze the reason that hunger exists in a society where there is more than enough food to feed everyone twice over. The FAFB exists to distribute all that food if they can only find a way to get their hands on it, process it, and put it in the hands of their agencies. The process sounds simple and ‘do-able’.

But the real question remains: why is there hunger at all? A portion of our citizens are unable to create the means to buy the food that is readily available on the retail market. Those people are too elderly, too disabled, or educationally unemployable at an income level sufficient to support their cost of living.

But there is a group of our citizens who are unable to support themselves because they are young children. They were victims of poor nutrition before they were born, and immediately after they were born. Until they were old enough to go to school, they competed with the rest of the family for the food that was available. When they started to public school they received breakfast and lunch at school Monday through Friday, but come the weekend it was back to the family competition for something to eat. Then school was out for the Summer and there was the whole family competing for all the food that is available.

As they grew up, perhaps they were fortunate enough to escape the hunger cycle, get a good education and a good job, make enough money to eat properly on a regular basis. Otherwise, the hunger cycle begins again with a poor education, a poorly paying job, and perhaps a new baby starts a new life under the same circumstances as his or her mother.

We, as a society, must find a way to break the hunger cycle, and mitigate the growing dependency on food banks and agencies to keep feeding more and more generations of unfortunate people who become entangled in the web of hunger. Proper nutrition has never been more important, and is much more than just a concept. The concept must be communicated along with the food that is distributed.

The Florida Association of Food Banks works at feeding hungry people, hoping that somehow, someday, some way all the people will be fed and they will no longer be needed. IMAGINE….there's no hunger

IMAGINE….there’s no hunger.