Friday, July 2, 2021
Every spring, your food bank finalizes its hurricane preparedness plans. Rather new to our planning is incorporating Covid protocols and its implications to our actions. Now that hurricane season is upon us, we are prepared to move into hurricane action mode with confidence that we are ready to respond.
Our comprehensive plans are enhanced by our membership with Feeding America and Feeding Florida. Both of these national and statewide hunger relief organizations, respectively, help provide your food bank with the resources that our region is dependent upon. Every county in the state of Florida is served by a food bank that is a member of Feeding Florida. Likewise, every county in the United States of America is served by a food bank that is a member of Feeding America. Harry Chapin Food Bank is the member of both organizations that serves Charlotte, Collier, Hendry, Glades and Lee counties.
Our local Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs) work closely with Feeding Florida to direct food and water resources to areas affected by a storm. As an essential service, your food bank maintains a certain amount of water throughout the hurricane season. We work closely with twelve Feeding Florida member food banks to share food and water in the event that our state is hit by a storm.
Our plan builds on lessons learned from previous storms. After Hurricane Irma, like so many others, securing a generator became a priority in our preparedness. We have secured a 125-kilowatt generator that can run up to five days on one tank of gas.
This week, your food bank has had its eye on Hurricane Elsa and yet we distributed 927,677 pounds of food into our five-county footprint. We will continue to closely monitor this storm and respond as necessary.
Together we are making a difference to more than a quarter of a million people who are hungry in our community. Thank you for helping to ensure that no one has to go hungry.
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