Second Harvest of the Big Bend has experienced a big cut in national grant support for the organization. That has led to the layoff of nearly one-third of the organization's workforce.
Second Harvest Executive Director Monique Ellsworth said Friday, March 22nd was a very tough day.
"We had to downsize and for us that meant there were 20 members of our team who arrived at work yesterday morning that will not be returning to work with us on Monday."
As the COVID pandemic receded, she says the number and size of direct and indirect grants for food banks like hers has shrunk. She estimated the local impact as a loss of some $700,000.
"The number of grants was reduced. Then the grants that were still remaining - the dollar amounts you could apply for - was a lot smaller than we had seen historically. But the big thing that changed for us was the flexibility of the funding."
Meaning much of the funds could no longer be used for staff salaries.
The work will continue, she vowed, but would be much more dependent on volunteer help.
"We'll be back at work on Monday and strategizing how we manage to get back to work serving our community. And I want to say thank you to our local community for the way they've shown up and worked alongside us to feed the people in our community."
A community that makes up 16 North Florida counties.
