The Big Bend is home to five of the 10 counties in Florida with the highest rates of food insecurity. And at the holidays, Second Harvest of the Big Bend is busier than ever -- but they’re getting a lot of help.
Second Harvest CEO Monique Ellsworth says the food bank is “a buzzing hive right now.” With 16 counties to serve following an active hurricane season, there’s a great deal of need and a lot for the volunteers to do.
“And that could look like coming to the food bank and helping pack boxes," Ellsworth said. "It could be sorting food. It could be preparing for the big distributions or actually joining us at the distributions and helping us load up people’s vehicles and wish them a happy holiday.”
Second Harvest estimates that in the counties it serves, 51 percent of the residents are working poor, living paycheck-to-paycheck at just above the federal poverty level and unable to afford basic living expenses.
Ellsworth says the food bank distributes food year-round through its partner agencies -- about 170 of them. And at the holidays, she says, they up the ante.
“All of those groups are super-charged, giving out food," she said. "Over and above, on top of that, what Second Harvest is doing is we’re doing direct distributions in community, where our staff is present and we are giving out food typically alongside volunteers from that community but it’s over and above what the network of that neighborhood or that county are doing.”
***
