Hunger

Nearly 200 people from 25 countires gathered in North Fort Myers recently for an international conference focusing on hunger and related topics.

Some experts say there is a largely hidden group — full-time college students struggling with serious food insecurity — that is an issue which came out of the shadows during the pandemic with at least 30% of college students suffering from being food insecure.

A community-wide survey to gather information on what Southwest Floridians found to be the most pressing need identified affordable housing and homelessness as the top concerns.

Before the pandemic, The Harry Chapin Food Bank of Southwest Florida was spending almost $40,000 dollars a month to buy food. That jumped to $1.4 million a month during the first year of the pandemic, and has remained high ever since. According to their president & CEO, Richard LeBer, they’re currently having to spend almost a million dollars a month to provide food to those in need. Add the challenges and increased need brought about by Hurricane Ian, and the coming summer months when kids are out of school and seasonal workers have less income, and it’s easy to see how hard the staff and volunteers at the Harry Chapin Food Bank must be working to continue meeting the demand for food across this region.

Harry Chapin Food Bank, the largest hunger-relief organization in Southwest Florida, collected 51,042 pounds of food in Lee County during the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive May 13.

Helping get food to many in Southwest Florida who may not have enough is the goal of the 31st Stamp Out Food Drive being held on Saturday and the National Association of Letter Carriers event provides a convenient way to donate.On Saturday, residents are encouraged to leave donations of non-perishable food items next to their mailboxes to be collected by mail carriers along their regular postal delivery routes. Food collected in Lee County will be distributed by the Harry Chapin Food Bank and other participating agencies.

Drone-delivered meals to Sanibel Island residents will be available Saturday through Monday this week via a partnership with several companies including Zing Drones of St. Petersburg, A2Z Drones of Los Angeles, Skyway drone service and World Central Kitchens.

With three weeks having passed since Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida, some are still finding it hard to feed themselves and obtain basic household supplies. State agencies like the Florida Department of Emergency Management is pivoting away from offering immediate assistance, like food and water, and towards long-term recovery assistance as communities begin to stabilize.

Feeding Florida, the state’s network of 12 food banks, is trying to take a more localized approach to addressing hunger needs across the state. The...

About 200,000 children in Florida could lose their access to free lunches under changes to the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance...