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Florida Hospital Looks To Expand Food Donation Program

Photo: Matthew Peddie, WMFE
Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida

Florida Hospital is looking to expand a program to donate unused food. Food that would have gone to a landfill is instead being sent to Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.

Prepared meals like pot roasts, tilapia and whole grain salads are frozen and picked up by the food bank each day.

Hospital dietitian Tennille Yates said the hospital donates about 15 hundred pounds of food each month from two of its campuses.

"Because it’s not an option to run out of food in a hospital there is almost always some food that remains at the end of service," said Yates.

"Now we’re diverting that from a landfill to hungry people.

Yates said there’s a link between food insecurity and obesity.

“We know that obesity contributes to chronic diseases such as heart disease, or stroke, or some types of cancer. And you can see that addressing food insecurity is extending beyond food insecurity, it’s also addressing chronic disease.”

In the next few months Yates said the program will expand to include all seven Florida Hospital campuses.