Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida is the hunger-relief hub for the seven counties around Orlando: Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Lake, Brevard, Marion, and Volusia. It distributes roughly 300,000 meals a day through more than 625 feeding partners. Derrick Chubbs serves as President and CEO, having come from the Central Texas Food Bank. Central Florida’s tourism and service economy hides a real food-insecurity problem, because many of those jobs do not cover the local cost of living.
Second Harvest collects food at scale and distributes it through more than 625 partner agencies across seven counties, adding up to roughly 300,000 meals a day. Beyond moving food, it runs a culinary training program that prepares unemployed and underemployed adults for jobs in the food-service industry, turning a food bank into a path out of the situation that brings people to a pantry in the first place.
Derrick Chubbs serves as President and CEO, having previously led the Central Texas Food Bank, the largest hunger-relief agency in its region. He stepped into a long-established organization in Orlando and continued its expansion. The senior team includes a chief operating officer and a chief development officer who manage operations and fundraising at scale.
The seven-county service area runs from Orlando out to the Space Coast and north toward Ocala and Daytona. Central Florida’s economy leans on tourism and service work, jobs that often pay too little to cover the area’s rising rents. That mismatch is why food insecurity here is higher than the region’s theme-park image suggests.
Yes. Second Harvest is a 501(c)(3) and a member of Feeding America and Feeding Florida. Donors can review its financials through GuideStar and Charity Navigator. As with other food banks, donated product and bulk buying mean a dollar produces several meals.
Donations and volunteer sign-ups run through feedhopenow.org. Volunteers regularly pack large numbers of meals in single sessions, and cash gifts go furthest because of the food bank’s purchasing power.
Under the Feeding Florida umbrella, Second Harvest covers the Orlando region, Feeding South Florida covers the southeast, and Feeding Tampa Bay covers the Gulf Coast. For anyone in the Orlando area or the surrounding counties, Second Harvest is the lead organization to support.
625+ feeding partners across seven counties.
A program preparing adults for food-service careers.
School and summer meal distributions for kids.
Surge food relief during Florida hurricanes.
Sources: Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida website (feedhopenow.org), GuideStar and ProPublica (EIN 59-2142315), and Orlando-area reporting on leadership and operations. We are not affiliated with Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida and receive no compensation for this listing. Spotted an error? [email protected]
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