The Second Harvest of the Big Bend has been shipping out 30% more food than usual since the pandemic began. Monique Van Pelt CEO for Second Harvest of the Big Bend says while her service area has always been one of the neediest in Florida, COVID-19 has made it worse.
“In Leon County, we can see that 18% are food insecure but that’s actually a number before COVID hit. So in Leon County we know that those numbers have increased, there are about 68,000 individuals who are food insecure here,” said Van Pelt. “But Leon County’s not even the most food-insecure county in our service area, more food insecure than that is Madison County.”
Van Pelt says 16,000 of the 68,000 individuals in Leon County are kids.
Across the 11 county service area of the Big Bend center, there are 150,000 individuals who are considered food insecure.
Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried spent her lunch hour on Giving Tuesday bagging satsumas for food-insecure families. During the event, Fried said providing free food for families is important because more people are out of work during the pandemic and are less able to provide for themselves.
“A lot of those jobs are not coming back yet in the State of Florida. Especially in Central Florida a lot of the tourist industry and a lot of our hospitality,” said Fried. “And so those families who were just barely potentially making ends meet before the pandemic, now are having some real issues making sure that the food is stocked in their refrigerators, and getting meals onto their plates every day for their families.”
Food insecurity has grown across Florida during COVID-19.
Van Pelt says something as simple as sharing the food bank’s social media post can help spread the word and possibly put food in the mouths of hungry families.
