from staff
The Second Harvest Food Bank of North Florida will begin distribution of 3,000 “Family Boxes” at no cost to its member agencies over the next two months through a $110,000 grant provided by The Community Safety Net Fund.
A Family Box provides a four-day supply of healthy, protein-rich food for a family of four. Family Boxes are especially beneficial to food pantries that hand out food to people in their neighborhoods who are struggling but not yet homeless.
The Community Safety Net Fund is a short-term emergency funding pool supported by the Jessie Ball duPont Fund and a host of private donors. Administered by The Community Foundation in Jacksonville, its resources are intended to provide financial assistance to nonprofit organizations that are considered the community’s “Social Safety Net” for people in need, specifically ones that provide food, shelter, clothing and assistance paying rent and utilities. Since its creation in December, The Community Safety Net Fund has received contributions of $1.4 million and awarded more than $1 million in grants.
Second Harvest has seen a 32 percent increase in demand over the past year and provided more than 7 million pounds of food to those in need. The Safety Net Fund grant will allow the Food Bank to allocate resources for nearly a fourth of that increase over the two months it will be distributed.
Food and monetary donations dramatically increased during the final four months of 2008, helping Second Harvest overcome the severe shortage of resources. Local food drives contributed an average of more than 35,000 pounds of food each month from September through December, an increase of more than 400 percent from food drive contributions earlier in the year. Monetary donations also increased by more than 50 percent from the same time period in 2007.
“The response from this community over the last four months has been tremendous,” said Executive Director Wayne Rieley. “Through the efforts of local food drives and many timely donations, we were able to restock and place ourselves in a position to meet the needs of the hungry people who live among us. We want to keep this momentum going, however, and not let our guard down. The need is always present, and we want to maintain our diligence in reaching out to those who won’t make it without our help.”