Packing peppers to create meals for Floridians in need

March 29, 2019

Originally appeared on This Week at Mayo Clinic

Leaders from Mayo Clinic’s Florida campus last week volunteered at Feeding Northeast Florida. According to the organization, 283,140 people in northeast Florida don’t know where their next meal will come from.

Boxing up peppers may not seem like anything extraordinary, but that’s what 22 leaders from Mayo’s Florida campus did on Tuesday, March 19. All for an important cause.

They volunteered at Feeding Northeast Florida, a community food bank working to establish food security across eight counties in Northeast Florida.

Mayo staff packed 1,234 pounds of peppers, which then were used to create 1,029 meals for those in need.

According to Feeding Northeast Florida, more than 238,000 people in Northeast Florida are food insecure, meaning they don’t know where their next meal will come from. More than 81,000 are children.