My capstone project is coming along nicely. Theres a lot to say about my time in volunteering with second harvest, but even more to make note about the issue of sustainability and food insecurity in my city.
According to Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, one in eight people in Central Florida face food insecurity. Since the pandemic, the number of people they help has almost doubled, and they now distribute enough food for 300,000 meals a day.
For a major city such as Orlando, these are very sad statistics not many people look at. In the US as a whole, 1 in 5 children are food insecure along with 44 million other Americans. Hunger in the US looks different as compared to other nations. Those struggling turn to junk food, cheap and satisfying, but not sustainable and filling in the long term, contributing to malnutrition among Americans that can lead to other health issues.
This is a sentiment not mentioned in the media now adays because this has been a systemic issue for a long time. Documentaries i’ve watched on this issue from the 2000s mention similar if not the same problems Americans are facing today with hunger.
With groups like second harvest though, there are a multitude of commendable efforts by the bank to get balanced, nutritional meals out to those in need.
Manal
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