Nourishing Lives
Food is Medicine
Food has the power to prevent, manage and treat diseases.

With nearly epidemic rates of diet-related health conditions and rising healthcare costs, nutritious food is crucial to addressing neighbor health and well-being. Second Harvest is expanding access to nutritious food, providing nutrition education and forging healthcare partnerships.
Access to Nutritious Foods
Second Harvest is committed to ensuring access to nutritious foods by working with local farmers, vendors, retail partners, and food donors to increase the quality and quantity of healthy food available through its feeding partner network.
A small but growing group of partners make up the Nutritious Pantry Network to increase access to healthier food, provide nutrition education and direct neighbors to additional community resources.
Nutrition Education
Nutrition education helps neighbors learn how food impacts health. In partnership with Florida Nutrition Ed, a team of nutrition educators lead engaging workshops and cooking demonstrations across Central Florida to inspire neighbors to make small changes that can positively impact their health.
Healthcare Partnerships
Second Harvest connects with practitioners across Central Florida, including hospital systems, free and charitable clinics, federally funded health centers, and local medical practices to encourage food insecurity screening and intervention. Working together to provide screening and referral to local feeding partners ensures that neighbors experiencing food insecurity and who need support to improve diet-related health conditions are connected to the care and support they need outside of the doctor's office.
Since 2016, Second Harvest has convened the Health and Hunger Task Force of Central Florida, a coalition of local healthcare providers and nutrition-focused organizations that identify opportunities to measurably impact health by using Food is Medicine strategies.
Food is Medicine Solutions
- Food Assistance
Food assistance programs can reduce food insecurity immediately and improve health outcomes over time. - Produce Options
Prescription produce boxes and a Mobile Farmers Market are two ways to increase access to fresh produce. - Nutrition Therapy
Personalized treatment plans created by a Registered Dietician include nutrition education and behavioral counseling. - Medically Tailored Groceries
Boxes of nonperishable and fresh foods are distributed at local health clinics and community access points for neighbors to pick up and prepare meals at home. - Medicially Tailored Meals
Each meal is created to help treat neighbors who have severe or complex chronic health conditions and who are limited in at least one activity of daily life. Meals are delivered to neighbors at home with simple reheating instructions.
By understanding and utilizing the power of food to support health, lives are changed.
Stories of Hope
Real Stories. Real Impact.
Meet the neighbors, partners and volunteers who bring our mission to life. These stories highlight how your support helps fight hunger, fuel futures and strengthen communities
— one meal at a time.
$10 a month helps provide 40 meals
Your monthly gift as a Meal Maker brings breakfast to a child, dinner to a senior, and relief to a family during a hard time. Hope starts with you.