Second Harvest of the Big Bend

Our mission is to feed the hungry in the Big Bend through our network of partner agencies, and to educate and engage the community in the fight against hunger. The unmet "meal gap" in our service area is 25 million meals annually The food insecurity rate in Leon County is 20.3 percent, or 1 in 4 people For every dollar donated to Second Harvest, we can provide four meals Second Harvest delivered enough food for 7.4 million free meals this year We are a volunteer-dependent organization Established in 1982 as the Food Bank of Tallahassee, we began by picking up prepared and perishable foods at local restaurants and grocery stores (“food rescue”). We continue that today through our Second Helpings Program, but have continued to expand our services as we work to feed the hungry. In 1986 we joined America's Second Harvest – the Nation’s Food Bank Network, now called Feeding America, which enabled us to obtain and distribute non-perishable donations. Feeding America is the network of 206 food banks in the country that each have a defined service area. Feeding America solicits donations from national manufacturers and companies, such as Kellogg’s, ConAgra, and Kraft, but also works on national public awareness and advocacy issues. Our defined service area includes the 11 counties of the Big Bend, including Leon, Jefferson, Taylor, Madison, Wakulla, Gadsden, Jackson, Liberty, Calhoun, Franklin and Gulf Counties. We deliver to our 135 partner agencies in each of these counties to ensure they have the food needed to distribute and serve their clients.