Hunger Relief Monthly Update
January 2022
|
|
The Hunger Relief Team is excited to bring you a transformed Hunger Relief Monthly Update! It contains all the same great information you're used to, in a new, refreshed format. Want to give us feedback on the new look? Please feel free to send us an email.
Every month we provide you with the latest news about Hunger Relief in Palm Beach County. Information is current as of January 18, 2021. Check out what's new and learn about ongoing Hunger Relief work.
|
|
Jewish Women's Foundation of the Greater Palm Beaches (JWF) Money Mavens: JWF's Money Mavens is a series of virtual monthly workshops for women and teen girls to empower them to manage their own money and make informed financial decisions. This program is open to women of all ages and financial literacy levels and is led by female financial experts. In an effort to make Money Mavens accessible to every woman who wants to participate, there is no cost to attend. To view and register for upcoming sessions, check out JWF's website.
|
|
-
Palm Beach County COVID-19 Updates: Palm Beach County is offering regular updates, news, and resources through its COVID-19 webpage.
-
COVID-19 PSAs: United Way of Palm Beach County, in partnership with Palm Beach County, Florida Department of Health, and 2-1-1, developed a Public Service Announcement (PSA) tool to educate the community about key information regarding COVID-19 and connect them with resources offered in the County. The PSA is available in English, Spanish, and Creole and can be used widely by organizations such as businesses, food distribution sites, and social service agencies. The audio file can be downloaded by clicking HERE. Please contact jankowc@pbclibrary.org to resolve access issues or to share how you are putting this resource to use.
-
Impower Cope with COVID: Free telehealth mental health and substance abuse counseling, medication, and services for low-income families and individuals needing help as a result of the pandemic are available through IMPOWER, a Florida non-profit organization. To qualify for services, individuals must be uninsured, underinsured, be at 150% of the Federal Poverty Level, and have been impacted by COVID-19. Services available for Florida residents of any age. To get started, you can visit www.impowerfl.org or call 321-639-1224.
|
|
-
Feeding America's Map the Meal Gap: Food insecurity projections for Palm Beach County show that Palm Beach County Food insecurity numbers are back to pre-pandemic levels and slightly lower.
|
|
-
Food Finder Map: The Food Finder Map is an interactive tool developed by UWPBC Hunger Relief to help people seeking food resources easily connect to sites near them. Information is English, Spanish, and Creole. UWPBC updates the information listed on this map weekly. However, locations and hours of distribution may change. Please consider calling the site prior to visiting to verify information listed. Please note that sites may have specific requirements such as ID. As of January 14th, there were over 139,000 views of the map.
-
Hunger Relief Department: Hunger Relief staff are partnering with community partners within and outside our network to address short term, midterm, and long-term needs of the Palm Beach County communities. We are also tracking information and data available through our networks and partnerships. In addition to facilitating Hunger Relief meetings, the Hunger Relief team attends several community meetings to stay abreast of community needs including the COVID-19 Funding Coalition; Birth to 22 Steering Committee; CAC/HHS 2021 Regular Committee; CHIP; FDACS Food Security Advisory Council (FSAC); Florida Policy Institute Safety Net Advisory Committee (SNAC); and Palm Beach County PIDC.
|
|
-
School District of Palm Beach County (SDPBC): Breakfast and lunch meals are FREE to ALL SDPBC students every school day in 2021-2022! SDPBC has served almost 9.8 million meals between October-December 2021.
-
Basics4Babies: Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies (HMHB)'s Basics4Babies emergency pantry has gone mobile! The pantry provides diapers, formula, and baby food for babies from birth through 12 months. For a list of mobile locations, office locations, and eligibility, please visit HMHB's website or check out their flyer.
-
WIC Outreach: The 0-4 Subcommittee has been focused on developing a WIC Outreach Plan. Accomplishments include a new video, “What is WIC?” and designing palm cards to distribute to families in English, Spanish and Creole. To watch the video and find a local WIC office, please visit our website. If you are interested in receiving palm cards, please email us.
-
Weekend Backpack Programs: More than 59 locations received weekend backpacks during the 2020-2021 school year, serving 6,359 children for an average of 25 weeks. These numbers also include children and their families served through the Family Weekend Backpack Program. UWPBC has received grants from the Jim Moran Foundation and the Batchelor Foundation in support of the Family Weekend Backpack program which serves both the children receiving the backpacks and their families.
-
Year-Round Meal Program: UWPBC Hunger Relief received a grant from The Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation in support of year-round meals. FLIPANY has onboarded three sites in the Afterschool Meals program – the City of Greenacres Community Center, The Duo Center, and Urban Youth Impact. Between October-December 2021 over 5,600 meals were served at the three sites.
|
|
-
Senior Meals: The Area Agency on Aging (AAA) and its partners served just shy of 113,000 home-delivered or congregate meals between October-December 2021. Seniors who need food should contact the Elder Helpline at 866-684-5885 or they can call 211 who will direct them.
|
|
-
Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches, Inc. (MOWPB): MOWPB serves hot meals three days/week and fresh frozen meals on the remaining days. MOWPB has been serving 2,500 meals a week to 300 people. MOWPB serves those individuals aged 65 and over who are home bound due to age, infirmity or debilitating illness and are unable or struggling to food shop and prepare nutritious meals. Their clients are either living alone, or with their spouse/partner who may also be home bound or who may be the fulltime caregiver. To set up service please call (561) 802-6979, extension 6.
-
Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office (PBSO): PBSO has a program to assist our Palm Beach County elderly residents who are unable to leave their homes to go to the grocery store or the pharmacy. PBSO volunteers are ready to deliver orders directly to their doors. This program is available ONLY in areas where PBSO has jurisdiction. Fore more information, please go to PBSO's website.
|
|
-
Apply for SNAP Benefits: DCF’s Statewide Customer Call Center (850-300-4323) is available for customer questions and application assistance, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, 8 a.m. to noon; and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The fastest way to get information and apply for benefits is online. Customers can report changes, upload documents, and check the status of their application and benefits through their MyACCESS Self-Service Portal. DCF continues to work quickly to process the growing number of applications as a result of COVID-19. For a complete list of eligibility requirements for SNAP visit DCF's website.
-
Apply for SNAP Benefits through Palm Beach County Food Bank (PBCFB): PBCFB works with a network of community partners to help individuals, families, and seniors apply for SNAP benefits. PBCFB’s Benefits Specialists speak English, Spanish, Creole, and some Mayan dialects. The calendar of times and locations for appointments, and lists with the documents needed for appointments can be found on the Food Bank’s website.
-
Maximum Monthly Allotment & Changes to SNAP Household Monthly Benefits: Starting October 1, 2021, SNAP benefits were automatically increased by as a result of a change to the 'Thrifty Food Plan'. Visit DCF's website for more specific information on this increase. For a look at SNAP changes over the past year and a half, check out our graphic below.
|
|
-
SNAP Online Purchasing: SNAP recipients may purchase groceries online with the use of an EBT card. They are automatically eligible to participate in this program and do not need to apply. As of May 2021, participating retailers include Walmart, Amazon, ALDI, BJ’s Wholesale Club and Publix. For more information on the online purchasing pilot, please refer to the Online Purchasing Pilot FAQs.
-
Pandemic EBT (P-EBT) Advocacy: Thanks to collective advocacy efforts, the State of Florida requested more than $1 billion in Summer P-EBT benefits for 2.6 million kids. P-EBT benefits are expected to be disbursed beginning November 24, 2021, with staggered disbursement through early 2022. For more information visit DCF's website about P-EBT or call their dedicated P-EBT line at 1-833-311-0321.
|
|
-
Pantry Project: UWPBC Hunger Relief staff continues to hold follow-up meetings, organized by Palm Beach County’s designated Emergency Operations Areas (EOAs), to regularly convene the pantries and develop communication and coordination strategies and identify ways to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and increase capacity. The pantries are addressing specific needs/costs for storage, IT, and capital improvement. Transportation recommendation has been finalized.
-
Improving Resource & Referral Needs: UWPBC Hunger Relief, Palm Beach County, and 211 are currently meeting and working on coordination necessary for a shared data source to store food distribution site data and other social service resources for most accurate and up-to-date information.
-
Healthy Corner Stores Initiative: The initiative continues to work with Sam’s Food Store, Canal Point. Sam’s offers fresh produce and ready to eat fresh options like salads to go and healthy wraps to its customers. A local marketing campaign is underway.
-
Farmers Helping Families: Hunger Relief is working with United Farmers Alliance (UFA) Farmers Helping Families, a group of Palm Beach County farmers, working on solutions to get product from the farms to the at-risk communities in Palm Beach County. UFA is working with FDACS and helping farmers register on myflorida.com so their products can be sold to FDACS and other entities. UFA is also partnering with Feed the Hungry, Boca Helping Hands, Feeding Palm Beach County (Feeding South Florida) and Palm Beach Harvest, and others to help get food into our community. UFA/Farmers Helping Families is approved to accept SNAP/EBT and Fresh Access Bucks.
-
Farm Donations: There is much information on what the farmers in the Glades have been contributing to the County, School District of Palm Beach County, and food banks (Feeding South Florida, Palm Beach County Food Bank, etc.) for distribution. Their information is available on their social media and EAA Farmers information. Florida Crystals continues to donate rice and sugar to local organizations.
-
The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP): Beginning October 1, 2021, Farm Share became the administrator of the TEFAP contract, under Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) and USDA. Palm Beach County is now categorized as its own region, Region 17. Supply chain issues have resulted in a slower start to available TEFAP food in Palm Beach County than expected. The amount of available TEFAP food is expected to increase over the next few months.
|
|
We couldn't do this work without you!
The Hunger Relief Team is so appreciative of everything you do for our community. Please feel free to reach out to us anytime by calling us at 561-375-6600 or emailing us.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
