9/3/2023 0 Comments Harvest food“I love this idea that we are creating opportunities for equitable access to healthy food,” Khatib said. Keller said the groundwork Second Harvest is putting into creating access to consistent, nutritious food, should create a healthy lifestyle even for Orange County’s most adverse communities with the outcome being increased opportunities, self-sufficiency and economic and health growth. And if we can affect the health outcomes, then their trajectory opens up that much more.” “If we can provide good food to the people that need it the most, just maybe we can affect their health outcomes. “We like to think of ourselves as developing new and innovative ways to tackle an age-old problem of not just a lack of food, but also nutritional insecurity,” Keller said. The effort also took a fleet of trucks that traveled 97,000 miles – a length that equates to circumventing the world four times, Keller said. In 2022, Second Harvest distributed 33 million pounds of food with the help of 285 partner groups and 37,000 volunteer hours at its distribution center and farm. Khatib said while putting health first by what kind of food the community pantries are stocked with, Second Harvest also provides people choices in the food they receive – that’s giving with dignity.Īnd all of that, “it’s a team effort,” Keller said. “We want to make sure we are not just giving any kind of food, but making sure it’s high-quality food that’s nourishing bodies and minds and social well-being.” “We are on a nutrition mission,” said Dareen Khatib, administrator of health and wellness for the Orange County Department of Education who is a Second Harvest board member and the head of its nutritional advisory council. In all of Second Harvest’s 40 years, the last two represent the biggest pivot in its approach toward providing for the community, its leadership said. It is a permanent reminder that when we all stand together, we can weather any crisis.” “They allowed their images to be shared as a representation of the people that we serve, the community that we represent, and that mural is a gift from this food bank to Orange County for standing with us during the darkest of times. “The faces on the side of the building are actual people that we serve,” Keller told the audience. Through 310 local food pantries around Orange County, Second Harvest serves about 332,000 people a month – that is up significantly from a pre-pandemic average of 249,000 people. Recent expansion of the organization includes two new farms – a smaller Founders Farm and its main 45-acre Harvest Solutions Farm – and 16,000-square-feet of cooler space that is helping the food bank accommodate an influx of fresh food and produce to meet its new healthier mission, such as vegetables, fruits, milk, lean protein and eggs that are purchased, grown or donated. “It’s our mission,” she said, “in collaboration with our partners, to provide dignified, equitable and consistent access to nutritious food, creating a foundation for community health.” “Yes we feed, but we also strive to serve the most nutritious food we can, to help lift our neighbors in need out of poverty. “Our new vision, that we work toward every day in this food bank, is an Orange County with food and nutrition security for all,” Keller said.
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