The Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida is calling on residents for help after the federal government suspended funds critical to feeding many in the region.
A fleet of 28 tractor-trailers was scheduled to bring over 1 million pounds of fresh chicken, pork, turkey, milk, and eggs over the next several weeks. But on Tuesday, Second Harvest leaders learned that the delivery had been canceled.
Tuesday’s cancellation is due to the federal government suspending the Commodity Credit Corporation fund. The United States Department of Agriculture has historically used the fund to fuel the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which Second Harvest of Central Florida has relied on for several decades, said Greg Higgerson, the chief development officer at Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.
In December, the USDA allocated $500 million of those funds for the emergency program throughout the country this year.
Higgerson said the canceled funds could affect 10% of its everyday distribution.
“We don't really understand or know why this has been frozen or paused. We're really hoping that it gets reinstated at some point soon,” Higgerson said. “We do know that in the short term, we've lost a significant amount of food.”
Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida provides food to vulnerable school children, seniors, and others in seven Central Florida counties: Brevard, Lake, Marion, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, and Volusia.
The cancelled delivery of food was carrying enough fresh food for 900,000 meals, Higgerson said.
Last year, the food provider distributed 87 million meals to the region, as well as 76 million in 2023, according to its website.
Higgerson expects the need for food distribution centers to rise this year as the cost of everyday goods continues to increase.
“There's historically high prices around almost everything, whether it's groceries or fuel or rent costs, all of these things are coming together to cause some real hardship for people,” he said.
To make up for the loss of food, Second Harvest will have to purchase the commodities itself, Higgerson said, which is an estimated cost of $11 million.
The food provider is turning to the public for help financially or through food donations. However, in terms of the latter, it can only accept non-perishable items.
“We always rely on the community to step up and help us with funds and food, and volunteers. I just think that's asking a lot of the community to come up with an extra $11 million over the course of a year so that we can replace that USDA food,” he said.
Still, Higgerson believes they will be successful -- the community is relying on them.
“What are those folks going to do to replace that food? It’s not optional. I don't know anybody who can just decide to eat or not,” he said. “We worry about how that's going to affect kids in school. We worry about how it's going to affect seniors and their health.”
