Hunger Is Rising, But We Can Turn the Tide
Can I afford to buy groceries this month? If I do, how will we cover rent? What will the kids eat when they come home from school? How will we make it through the weekend?
When you’re living with food insecurity, it’s all you can think about – from the moment you wake up in the morning to your last restless worries before falling asleep. That’s because hunger is much more than an empty stomach. It’s an impossible dilemma that casts a shadow over every aspect of your life.
In today’s economy, more than one in eight Central Floridians is at risk of experiencing hunger on any given day. At Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, we’re doing our part to provide the right nutrition to our neighbors by distributing enough food for approximately 300,000 meals daily.
A Wake-Up Call in the Fight Against Hunger
“Rent eats first.” Those three words, shared matter-of-factly by a neighbor as she sought food assistance at a local distribution, have stayed in my mind since I first heard them. They describe a dilemma – and silent crisis – many families are struggling with right now in Central Florida and beyond.
Hunger is real. It is urgent. And many people have no choice but to face it alone. That’s part of the message I recently brought to Washington, D.C., after being invited to participate in a Fed Listens panel. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve asked for an update on food insecurity. While I’m sure they hoped to hear things had improved in the past two years, I was there to tell them the opposite.
Hunger is a Big Problem – and It Needs a Big Solution
Pre-schoolers. Veterans. Hardworking parents. Homebound seniors. Approximately 2.3 million Floridians of all ages and backgrounds have at least one thing in common: At some point this year, they’ll be at risk of going to bed hungry.
That estimate – based on in-depth research by the national nonprofit Feeding America – is backed up by what we see at our local food banks. Second Harvest Food Bank’s network of feeding partners distributes approximately 300,000 meals every day. But hunger is about so much more than food.
A Journey of Hope
Whether we acknowledge it or not, we all are on a journey together. Every human being on Earth makes a long, sweeping journey every 365 days around a giant blazing sphere of gas. If we are lucky, we wake up each morning of that journey with gratitude and a nutritious meal to fuel our bodies.
At Second Harvest, we have been on another kind of journey together, which has taken us on that path around the sun forty times. It has been a trip filled with uncertainty and even tragedy. Still, it has also been replete with daily examples of love, compassion, generosity, and hope. Indeed, it has.
