ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. —
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the rate of hunger across Central Florida this holiday season has doubled from last year.
Second Harvest Food Bank has been working tirelessly to meet the unprecedented need, and now, area schools are pitching in, blending a real-life issue into learning and action.
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Teacher Robin Jolley Perez says it was the harsh reality of learning about levels of hunger so close to home that inspired action in her advanced academics classes of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders at Hunter’s Creek Middle School.
“They didn’t know how much of a problem it was, even just in our area,” Perez says.
Putting that knowledge to work, students joined up with the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida in a virtual food drive.
They created their own video for the school news and designed original flyers on social medial.
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Efforts like these have allowed Second Harvest to keep pace with the 300,000 meals a day it’s been providing during the pandemic- twice the amount of last December.
“Forty percent of the people who are coming...never had to ask for this help before,” says Erika Spence of Second Harvest.
A fact that, so far, not even the hope of a vaccine has changed.
“The financial frustration and devastation...there’s no shot in the arm to really cure that.” Spence says.
Every dollar donated to the food bank provides four meals. It’s added up to more than 30,000 meals from Winter Garden’s brand new Summerlake Elementary School, where students raised eight times their 1,000 dollar goal in less than a week.
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Even with the vaccine rollout, Second Harvest estimates a slow, uphill battle with hunger here in Central Florida.
Those interested in donating can still contribute to the Hunter’s Creek Middle School food drive or start their own virtual food drive. Click here to get started.