• Introductions
• Using Urban Agriculture to Improve Food Security (Monica Petrella, Hillsborough County Food Systems Coordinator)
• Blessing Boxes (Lee Ann Carr)
• Meals on Wheels St. Petersburg Update (Caitlyn Peacock & Chloe Kidd, Tampa Bay Network to End Hunger)
• Creating a Regenerative Community Food System Update: Non-Profits Needed (Caitlyn Peacock & Chloe Kidd, Tampa Bay Network to End Hunger)
• Any additional info to share
• Holiday Party!
• Adjournment

The Tampa Bay Network to End Hunger program "Creating a Regenerative Community Food System", in partnership with Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg, uses the Waste No Food app, to help local non-profit organizations gain access to additional food resources. As many soup kitchens, food pantries and hot meal providers try to cope with less donations and more demand, it is very important for organizations to have access to excess food. In fact, if organizations had access to all excess food, everyone in our tri-county network area could be fed. 

Food donors on the app include local restaurants, markets, farms and other vendors who have excess food that can be redistributed to people in need. The type and quantity of donated food varies. Sometimes, donations include canned goods, bread, sandwich platters or individually boxed meals leftover from a catered event.

We invite non-profits, who would like to have access to more food, to join Waste No Food Tampa Bay, where you will take part in redistributing massive amounts of food waste/ excess food.

Here’s how it works: This program is free for registered 501c3 non-profits to participate and it is very user-friendly. Download the Waste No Food app and create an account, you will then have access to preferences which allow you to specify what type of food you want, narrowing down the places where excess food is. You can claim available excess food and pick it up. For example, if a restaurant has excess food that they would like to donate to a local non-profit, they would enter this information into the Waste No Food app, including a description of the food, quantity, and when/where to pick it up. Registered non-profits can then login to the app to view the posted donation of food. Before claiming the donation, the organization will need to decide if they can pick it up and redistribute the excess food. If so, you would just click "Claim" on the donation and then follow the directions for pick up. The donor’s contact information will also be available if you have additional questions. Do you have volunteers or staff that can occasionally leave to pick up a donation? If so, we encourage you to get signed up on the Waste No Food app today.
 

Interested in joining? Click below or email Amanda Streets, Food Suplus Consultant for the Tampa Bay Network to End Hunger.

When: 20 Dec 2019 12:00 PM, EST
Where: Microsoft teams link below or +1 941-306-1146 United States, Sarasota (Toll); Conference ID: 550 861 367#

Join us from 12-1pm on Friday, December 20th, for the Florida Food Forum on "Food Policy for Wellness." Guest speaker Dave Krepcho will be presenting about this important topic. Following the presentation will be a discussion and Q&A session.

Bio: Dave Krepcho is President/CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida; a member of Feeding America, the largest domestic hunger relief organization in the U.S. Second Harvest Food Bank serves a six County area in Central Florida through a network of 550 partner agencies. Last year, Second Harvest distributed enough food for 58 million meals, have trained and placed into jobs 280 graduates of their Culinary and Distribution Center Training programs and generated $100 million worth of SNAP benefits through their award-winning mobile outreach program. Second Harvest’s annual economic impact in Central Florida is $187 million. The organization annually receives Charity Navigator’s Four Star rating. Dave has 26 years’ experience in food banking in positions such as a national Feeding America Board member, past president of Feeding Florida, chair of the Feeding America eastern region, chaired various national task forces, member of a bi-partisan Washington, DC think tank, serves on the 4ROOTS Board as well as the Florida Nonprofit Alliance. He was the Orlando Sentinel’s Orlando Sentinel’s “2009 Central Floridian of the Year” and in 2019, Orlando Magazine’s “50 Most Powerful People: Philanthropy & Community Voices.” Prior to his role at Second Harvest, Dave was V.P. of Business Development at Feeding America. Before he reinvented himself as a food banker, he had a career in the Advertising Agency business and attended Columbus College of Art & Design. Dave is married with two children, seven grandchildren.

Forum Host: Dell deChant, Associate Chair, Religious Studies Department, University of South Florida.  Member of the Board of Directors, Florida Food Policy Council.

The Trump administration finalized a SNAP rule last week that would cut benefits for hundreds of thousands of people. A recent study by the Urban Institute shows the combined impact of the administration’s three rules regarding SNAP would cut a total of 3.7 million people from SNAP in an average month. Millions more would experience reductions in monthly benefits and 982,000 children would lose automatic access to free school meals. “This is an unacceptable escalation of the administration’s war on working families, and it comes during a time when too many are forced to stretch already-thin budgets to make ends meet. The USDA is the Grinch that stole Christmas. Shame on them,” said Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-Ohio).