June 7, 2016
Share
A Message From The Chief:
When I first decided to run for office in 2011, one of the reasons was because a well-respected leader reminded me that 1 in 4 children in America go to bed hungry. That statistic changed everything for me. Now, 5 years later, that statistic remains the same, and here in Central Florida, 1 in every 6 people deal with hunger and food insecurity.
Tuesday I got to tour Second Harvest Food Bank. It was great to see all the good work that Dave Krepcho and his team are doing to feed the hungry in Central Florida. They work with over 550 area organizations and delivered over 40 million meals last year. What stood out to me is that they need to do double that, delivering anywhere from 80-100 million more meals, to meet the need here in Central Florida.
Something I have always advocated for is job training programs for those who are not going to college. Second Harvest Food Bank is offering a culinary training program on-site, and 1/4th of students in the program are homeless. We need more programs like this one.
It's great to see our community coming together to solve such a pressing problem, but there is obviously more work to be done. This is an issue I am passionate about tackling in Congress.