“When you’re hungry, you don’t care about eating healthy.” It’s a myth so often repeated that it’s become entrenched in our culture ― the idea that families living with food insecurity are happy to reach for chips or soda to get the calories they need to make it through the day. But across Central Florida, the facts tell a different story: Folks are hungry for nutritious food.
At Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, the eight-person team of instructors leading the SNAP Ed program ― a USDA-approved nutrition curriculum ― stay busy conducting more than 1,100 events every year at community centers, senior centers, after-school programs and more. The objective of these events isn’t to lecture people about making better choices, but to give them the hands-on experiences, skills and confidence they need to access fresh food and prepare nutritious meals.
Making a big lifestyle change can be daunting, but SNAP Ed aims to teach people ways to make the healthy choice into the easy choice. How can you take a traditional recipe or a family favorite and add some fresh vegetables? How can you reduce sodium, fat and sugar, and still enjoy your food? How can you rethink your shopping list, or incorporate more nutritional items?
Those are questions that anyone can ask themselves to support a healthier lifestyle. But SNAP Ed focuses specifically on neighborhoods and communities where many families need food assistance, because there’s a strong correlation between hunger and chronic health conditions like heart disease, obesity, or diabetes. In fact, chronic disease prevalences for adults in food insecure households are roughly nine times greater than households not experiencing food insecurity (USDA, 2024).
One of the goals of SNAP Ed is to help people understand how the foods you eat impact the way you feel – why some meals can make you crave salts and sugars, and how more nutrient-dense ingredients can keep you feeling full longer. Not only does this approach help to prevent illness ― and eliminate the added cost of medication and doctor visits ― but it can help people face fewer limitations in day-to-day life because they feel better.
In just three years, the SNAP Ed program has grown 150% and it’s now becoming part of a statewide initiative through Feeding Florida. That success is a testament to the real hunger for good nutrition in our community. From young kids trying unfamiliar fruits and vegetables to older adults mastering new recipes in cooking workshops, people are eager to eat healthy and explore new foods.
Maureen Hawkins, PhD, is the Health and Hunger Strategies Director at Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.
Of course, nutrition education alone won’t solve the problem. Healthy food is on average twice as expensive per calorie than unhealthy food, CNBC reported in 2023 ― and our task is to help neighbors who are making difficult financial choices about covering fixed expenses like rent, and/or medication, can still put balanced meals on the table. That’s where Second Harvest offers a variety of assistance programs to fill in the gap, from SNAP coordinators who can help families apply for benefits in difficult times to delivering fresh produce and nutritious foods to daily mobile food distribution events. The food bank also has a network of more than 870 community feeding partners across Orange, Osceola, Brevard, Volusia, Seminole, Lake and Marion counties ― providing access to neighbors with just a click of a button for anyone who might know where to turn.
As we explore new programs that fight hunger and fuel health ― like mobile farmer’s markets, fresh-food school pantries, and more ― support from the community is what makes our mission possible. To learn more about Second Harvest and its programs, to find volunteer opportunities or make a monthly pledge, or to locate food assistance near you, visit www.feedhopenow.org.
Maureen Hawkins, PhD, is the Health and Hunger Strategies Director at Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. She plays a vital role in the Health & Hunger Task Force, a coalition of local healthcare providers and nonprofit organizations working together to measure the effects of nutrition by improving long-term health outcomes for neighbors living with chronic illness and food insecurity.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Opinion: Program teaches proper nutrition for our most vulnerable
