We Can Help Your Outreach Program!
Since 1979, LSS Second Harvest Food Bank's mission has been to reduce hunger in the community by creating partnerships with nonprofit organizations. The Food Bank distributes food to over 500 member agencies in North Florida. Member agencies include soup kitchens, food pantries, senior citizens groups, nonprofit daycares, youth programs, residential facilities and many others. For more information on how the Food Bank can help your outreach program, please contact Sandy Manasco, agency development manager, at 904.353.FOOD, ext. 238, or by e-mail at sandym@lssjax.org.

In our abundant society, no one should go to bed hungry and good nutritious food should never go to waste. Please take a moment to review our brochure.

Recovered Food Sharing
More than six and a half million pounds of donated and rescued surplus food is distributed to more than 500 nonprofit agencies; churches and synagogues, youth services, day care and rehabilitation centers that operate food services, soup kitchens or pantries. Food donations for this program come from corporations, churches, foundations, grocery stores, charitable organizations and other Food Banks.

Kids Cafe
In 1989, in Savannah Georgia, two young brothers were discovered late one night in the kitchen of their housing project's community center. The older brother had broken into the kitchen to feed himself and his brother. In response to this glaring example of childhood hunger, the idea for Kids Cafe was born.

Through a cooperative effort between members of the Second Harvest Food Bank network and local civic and government support, Kids Cafe has become one of the nation's largest free meal service programs for children. Locally, the LSS Second Harvest Food Bank Kids Cafe works in conjunction with agency host sites, such as Boys and Girls Clubs, faith organizations and after school programs. Kids Cafe offers children in low-income neighborhoods a safe place to find nourishment, meet role models and participate in activities designed to enhance both educational and social development.

In Jacksonville, numerous Kids Cafe sites are in operation serving more than 10,000 nutritious meals and after-school snacks to children during the week.

Childhood hunger affects everyone. Even mild levels of malnutrition can impair a child's ability to learn. For school children, missing meals diminishes the ability to recall and use newly acquired information, verbal fluency, and control of attention, all of which have a negative impact on a child's ability to learn, decrease self-esteem, and contribute to performance problems.

As members of a community, we share in the responsibility to those who are most vulnerable in the population, especially children. Children are in special need of proper nutrition to help them avoid the consequences under-nutrition can have on their security.

The Kids Cafe works through donated and purchased foods and supplies. Menus are developed and items are distributed to participating sites. Staff and volunteers assist with homework and other planned activities.

For more information on Kids Cafe, call Patrick Colley at 904.353.FOOD(3663).


Kids Cafe Sites