Second Harvest helps food insecurity with $100,000 grant from Arnold Palmer Invitational

The woman was clearly uncomfortable. Embarrassed, even.

A patient at Orange Blossom Family Health, she had a diet-related chronic condition, and she also had been identified as food insecure. So, she was referred to Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida where she was able to get a box of healthy food options – not only for herself to eat but enough to feed her entire family.

Dawn Koffarnus, the chief health systems and financial officer of Second Harvest, remembers the tears flowing and the woman’s young son asking her what was wrong.

“And she said, ‘oh, these are happy tears,’” Koffarnus says. “’They're happy tears because I'm so grateful that these kinds of resources are available in the community.

“I gave her a hug and said, ‘we're here for you. And I'm so glad that we're making a difference in your life.’”

The Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard helped make that possible. The tournament, which is being held this week at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Florida, gave Second Harvest a $100,000 grant that has been instrumental in creating an innovative partnership marrying healthcare with hunger strategy.

The grant was courtesy of the Arnold Palmer Invitational’s overall win in last season’s PGA TOUR Charity Challenge. The season-long competition between TOUR events is based on FedExCup points earned by each tournament’s hand-picked team of eight players.

The program benefitted by the Arnold Palmer Invitational is called Bring Hope Home. Second Harvest launched the direct home delivery program in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing boxes of nutritious food – lean proteins, grains, fruits and vegetables -- to homebound individuals.

Even after the COVID-19 threat eased, though, Second Harvest continued to operate Bring Hope Home. And now the food bank has reimagined the program in partnership with Orlando Health, which is the official healthcare provider of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Second Harvest has brought in Orange Blossom Family Health, which is a federally qualified health center, as an additional partner for Bring Hope Home. The facility screens its patients with diet-related illnesses for food insecurity and when discovered, connects them with a community health worker who works with Second Harvest to provide boxes of food.

“It's a multi-partner way of intervention and keeping individuals in households healthy and vibrant in the community,” Koffarnus says.

During the screening, patients are asked two basic questions. One, do they have enough money to buy food on a regular basis and two, will that money run out before the next time you need to replenish your pantry?

“We know that if an individual screens positive for both being food insecure and having a diet-related chronic illness, that's a high-risk individual and we're targeting those individuals with this partnership,” Koffarnus says.

Often, she explains, people who are food insecure must use their money to buy the kind of high-carbohydrate, high-sugar and heavily processed foods that are cheaper than the produce and whole grains and lean protein that contribute to a healthy lifestyle. The choice can be a difficult one. Consider someone who has just been diagnosed with Type II diabetes and needs to eat properly to control their insulin levels.

“I can only imagine the level of fear that that person was experiencing knowing that now it isn't just being hungry," Koffarnus says. "Now it's an issue of what's going to happen to their health and is this something that could end their life if they don't have access to the foods that they need to treat their diagnosis?”

Individuals receive the Bring Hope Home boxes for six months. During that period, Second Harvest and the community health worker provide nutrition education and information on how to use food to treat their diagnosis. Their work is preventative as well as restorative when a chronic disease is concerned.

“If they're being treated for diabetes, then we can address how best to eat to prevent a readmittance into an emergency department or further need for healthcare costs,” Koffarnus says.

The community health worker will also make referrals to SNAP Outreach for qualified applicants. SNAP assistance, which was once known as food stamps, can be another resource for funding to add nutritious foods to the family groceries.

In addition, Second Harvest has earmarked $15,000 of the grant from the Arnold Palmer Invitational for its school partnership program. Six elementary schools in central Florida are getting $2,500 to help fund the markets that the students run in each school.

“They're open to every student in the school regardless of need, and they can get something as simple as a granola bar to help satiate hunger before a test or before a class,” Koffarnus says. “Or they can stop by the school market after school, and they can pick up items to bring home to their family members.”

The two programs the grant from the Arnold Palmer Invitational helps to fund provide healthy food and encourage healthy choices for the food insecure from kids to senior citizens. Just think about the child who spied an orange while he was trying to decide what snack to pick.

“He was so happy,” Koffarnus recalls. “He said, I just love oranges. I don't get to eat them very often, ever. And to watch a child go for an apple or an orange or piece of produce as something that is really a treat for them, it just makes you think, wow, there's a high need out there.”