The hunger picture in Central Florida

Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida is a partner food bank of Feeding America – the largest charitable domestic hunger-relief organization in the United States. Second Harvest secures and distributes food and grocery products to more than local nonprofit feeding programs in seven Central Florida counties: Brevard, Lake, Orange, Volusia, Osceola, Seminole and Marion.

With the help of food and financial donors, volunteers and a caring, committed community, the food bank distributes meals every day to partner programs such as food pantries, soup kitchens, women's shelters, senior centers, day care centers and Kids Cafes. In addition to helping feed the line of our neighbors who need help, Second Harvest also transforms dozens of lives directly every year. Economically-challenged adults who graduate from our 16-week culinary training program are placed in ‘better than minimum wage’ jobs that set them and their families on a path to self-sustainability.

New Study from Feeding America shows extensive disparities in food insecurity at the county level.

For the twelfth year, Feeding America has published its landmark research study, Map the Meal Gap(link:https://map.feedingamerica.org/), which once again finds that food insecurity exists in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. In Central Florida, Feeding America found that 12.3%, one in eight people and 18.3%, one in five children, lived in households that were food insecure in 2020.

Map the Meal Gap is the only study that provides local-level estimates of food insecurity and food costs across the United States. This year’s study, which provides data for 2020, for the first time includes food insecurity rates for several racial and ethnic groups at the local level and reveals that disparities can vary greatly by population and place. Looking at the local needs from 2020, including how need varies by age and race/ethnicity, helps the food bank and our community develop more targeted strategies to reach people at risk of hunger today.

Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida is one of 200 food banks that are part of Feeding America's nationwide food bank network. At the local level, Map the Meal Gap finds that there are over 500,000 individuals that experience hunger in our seven county service area. Five of these counties have higher rates of food insecurity than the national average.

View Central Florida food insecurity rates and findings

Click here to print or download "The Hunger Picture in Central Florida" as a pdf file.