Second Harvest works with more than 800 feeding partners to distribute food donations throughout its seven-county service area.
To keep food flowing across its network of feeding partners, Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida runs the Retail Rescue program, which collects millions of pounds of unsold food from stores like Walmart and Sam’s Club. The food reaches people in two ways. In one, a Second Harvest truck brings the food to the food bank, where volunteers sort it. Then, a feeding partner picks it up and takes it to their food pantry or community meal program.
In addition, some feeding partners pick up food directly from their local store. This helps get food into the community, often on the same day.
Herbert, a full-time volunteer and food pantry manager at Apostolic Church of Jesus in Altamonte Springs, picks up food from local stores. He and other church volunteers then distribute it to neighbors at mobile distributions and at the church food pantry.
“We give out food every day because we are picking up (food from grocery stores and the food bank) every day,” said Herbert.
He explained that the stores provide a wide variety of food items.
“It's produce; it's vegetables,” Herbert said. “It’s a lot of meat. We get good eggs. It's just like going to the store to buy food.”
He shared that Walmart and Sam’s Club often donate prepared foods and other essentials, which he quickly gives out to neighbors.
“Sam's has a lot of paper products and diapers, and the other items besides food (that neighbors receive) in the line, and water,” Herbert explained.
Donations from grocery stores help feeding partners like the Apostolic Church of Jesus provide much more support to neighbors facing hunger than they could on their own.
“Those retail stores enable us to really give our neighbors enough food,” Herbert said. “Because we don't turn down anybody, the retail stores enable us to have enough to do that. It makes a very big difference, between having food or not.”
Besides the Retail Rescue program, shoppers can support hunger relief at Walmart and Sam’s Club during the Fight Hunger. Spark Change campaign. Buying participating items or donating at checkout helps fund hunger relief and gets more food to kids, families, and seniors in Central Florida.
