Philanthropy | All Hands on Deck for All Faiths Food Bank’s Campaign Against Summer Hunger

By Tom Reese | Photo by Nancy Guth | May 2024

Over 40,000 children in Sarasota and DeSoto counties will not have sufficient food this summer break. All Faiths Food Bank is determined to change that and provide the community with the necessary resources to keep these children fed properly while they don’t have access to meals they would typically have at school. 

Many families in our community are struggling to put food on the table on a daily basis and rely on free or reduced meals at school for nutritious meals for their children. Having all the kids home for the summer exacerbates the issue and creates a massive need for community intervention. 

In addition to the high cost of living and growing inflation, Florida has recently opted out of the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children (Summer EBT) program, which would have provided $250 million in funding to help families in need buy food this summer. This makes All Faiths Food Bank’s campaign even more necessary than it already was.

Every year from April 1 – May 15, All Faiths Food Bank raises funds through its Campaign Against Summer Hunger with help from partner organizations and various other summer programs such as mobile food pantries. Donations are matched dollar for dollar by the generosity from lead investors like Gulf Coast Community Foundation and the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation. 

The campaign kicked off on March 24 at Nathan Benderson Park where the annual Walk to End Summer Hunger took place. The event was sold out and it included the option of participating in a 1 mile fun walk or a 5K walk to raise awareness and funds. Lead investors pledged at least $1 million to the campaign. 

In 2023’s campaign, over $2 million was raised and over 38,000 children were fed throughout the summer as a result of those funds. Since the inception of the campaign in 2014, over $16 million in donations have been accumulated as a direct result of the Campaign Against Summer Hunger. 

While the current focus of donations and resources are going toward the Campaign Against Summer Hunger, All Faiths Food Bank works around the clock all year long through various other programs and strategies to provide for those in need of nutritious meals. All Faiths Food Bank is the only food bank and largest hunger relief organization in Sarasota and DeSoto counties that works directly through Feeding America and Feeding Florida.

According to United Way of Florida’s 2023 ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) study, 45 percent of households in Florida were below the threshold and could not afford basic needs such as housing, childcare, food, health care, and transportation. The ALICE population represents those among us who are working, but due to childcare costs, transportation challenges, high cost of living, and so much more, are living paycheck to paycheck.

“We recognize that while we are reaching 67,000 of our neighbors in Sarasota and DeSoto counties, there is still a huge meal gap in our area,” says Nelle Miller, President and CEO of All Faiths Food Bank. “We are currently reaching only about a third of the people that we could be reaching who may have hunger issues. What we are really focusing on now is how we get into parts of our communities that we haven’t been able to before.”

All Faiths Food Bank is currently hard at work on its newly-implemented five-year strategic plan for 2024 by forming collaborations and talking to potential partners throughout the area to identify what the best method for delivery of resources could be. There is a lot of research involved into finding out where the needs of the community may lie both geographically and culturally. The data gathered will help to efficiently distribute meals and reach an even larger demographic than All Faiths currently reaches. 

Adequate warehouse storage space is another obstacle in the way of the organization’s goal of providing food to those in need. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 resulted in a drastic increase in the amount of food needed to achieve goals. With warehouse space quickly filling, a temporary solution to storing food was found in renting large coolers to place outside the facility to properly store everything. As All Faiths continues to grow and serve more community members, the need for new infrastructure continues to grow. 

The need for individuals to volunteer is also a pressing issue All Faiths Food Bank constantly faces. Over 3,000 volunteers log over 50,000 hours each year to help with various tasks like passing out meals, storing and sorting food, and fundraising efforts. 

“I’m so proud of the work we do and I couldn’t ask to work with a better group of people,” says Denise Cotler, Chief Development Officer. “I challenge everyone to get that same feeling by helping us. We wouldn’t be able to feed anyone without the volunteers and bodies physically passing out the food. Nothing is too small, everyone has a piece of this and we couldn’t do this without the help of our community.” 

Traditionally, a lot of people may think that physical donations in the form of cans or non-perishable items are the best way to donate to food banks. However, monetary contributions can actually be stretched out in a much more efficient manner. 

“While we appreciate any help or donation, when someone gives us a dollar, we have the buying power through Feeding America and 200 other food banks to make that dollar stretch further. In addition, it allows us to purchase culturally appropriate items and healthy produce that our neighbors need and want,” says Cotler. 

“In my opinion, when we are born we have inalienable rights to food, water, and air,” says Miller. “There is enough food on this planet to feed everyone, but there is a massive distribution problem, among other things. If we are not feeding people properly, it’s harder for them to be healthy, to be educated, to find a job, to do everything. To me, there is nothing more important than making sure that everyone has equity in food and that nobody goes hungry.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION on contributing to All Faiths Food Bank’s Campaign Against Summer Hunger and having your donation matched dollar for dollar, visit www.allfaithsfoodbank.org/campaignagainstsummerhunger.

If you are interested in volunteering your time or contributing in other ways, please visit www.allfaithsfoodbank.org/volunteer or contact them at info@allfaithsfoodbank.org or 941-379-6333.