Many of us are already up to our turkey necks with food prep for the big holiday ahead, so reading another blog post about pumpkin pies and cranberry sauce might not seem too important right now.  Go ahead and thank me for avoiding same because that’s not what this story is about.  Instead, I want to focus on a different food issue.  The one some people turn a blind eye to.

Hunger.

More specifically, hunger in our own neighborhoods, in people we meet and pass each day within our own communities.

If you’re reading this right now you probably aren’t worried about where your next meal is coming from.  In fact, you might be hard pressed to even remember what it feels like to be hungry, and I’m not referring to that gap between your last Starbucks and the chicken salad you bought for lunch.  I’m talking about to honest to goodness hunger pains that start to take over your stomach first, then your mental state of mind when you’ve only had one meal in the last two days.  Or, maybe none at all.

And while I’m not trying to ruin anyone’s Thanksgiving dinner, I do think it’s worth taking a moment to see some of the stats about who goes hungry right here in our own Central Florida neighborhoods.  Like this one:

Central Floridians turned to charitable feeding programs for help with food procurement 71,600 times in a typical week during the course of this 2014 study.

And if that wasn’t startling enough, how about this number:

Among all those clients [from right here in Central FL], 27% are children under the age of 18, and 11% are seniors age 65 and older.

There are plenty of other eye-openers in this recently released report, and I encourage you to see for yourself by visiting this link, put together by Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.

And while we all know this is the time of year when we’re asked to dig even deeper into our cupboards and pockets for both food and $$$$ donations, I wanted to share another way you could help with the local food crises. This involves letting Second Harvest Food Bank cater your holiday party or next event.

Huh? You want me to contract with a food bank to cater my event?

Yes, that’s exactly what I’m suggesting.  You see, Second Harvest works with Darden Foundation Community Kitchen to train future chefs to be able to go out and get jobs working creative culinary greatness in the world.  So to review, a giant corporation in the American restaurant scene sees the need to do more than just donate food to feed those in need.  They take the time to train those without jobs and then give them the opportunity for actual on the job experience all while giving back to the community.  How?  Oh, did I forget to mention that 97.4% of every dollar going to Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida goes right back into the food bank?  Cool, right?

It’s really an amazing organization and a unique concept, including the fact that they actually have beautiful event space to rent right there on location, or you can simply order your food to go for pickup or delivery.  It’s that easy.  The program is appropriately called Catering for Good and you can check out the complete menu here.  And while it’s most likely too late to get that Thanksgiving order in at this point, this service is available year round.

For further details contact Lanette Jarvis at 407.514-1048 or via this link.