TALLAHASSEE FLA. (WTXL) — Inflation is driving up grocery bills, costing 13.5% more in August than they did a year ago.
Dozens of families across the big bend have experienced food insecurity but non profits, such as Second Harvest of the Big Bend, are stepping-up to bridge that gap.
"So what we're hoping is that we can turn Tallahassee orange," said Monique Ellsworth, CEO of Second Harvest.
A color bridges the gap between food insecurity and families in need.
"Over 50% of our community is in need they're living paycheck to paycheck and often times what families are going to reduce the budget they have set aside for food," said Ellsworth.
Ellsworth is asking people in the community to plant signs in their neighborhoods and businesses to bring awareness of food insecurity.
To support Hunger Action Month, these orange signs with a QR code takes you straight to Second Harvest, giving you information about the cause and how you can help.
"The opportunity to put these signs in your yard is that it will kind of collate the entire community and provide this kind of unified vision for a hunger free big bend region," said Ellsworth.
To help raise awareness, Second Harvest teamed up with Publix. By the end of this week more than 6,000 team members will help create food boxes to give to families across our region.
"It is one of the top things we actually do," said Todd Jones, CEO of Publix. "To be able to give back whether it's our time our talent our treasures our Publix family loves to do this."
Jones said giving back to the community started back over 90 years ago as part of Publix's main mission.
He said being able to keep this tradition alive makes working in the supermarket business even more special.
"It really says that we've done a really good job of telling the Publix story about why we're here and the importance of giving back to the community and it's just very humbling it's a privilege," said Jones.
Second Harvest volunteers and Publix team members packed hundreds of boxes with canned goods and produce to give families healthy food options.
This is the 40th anniversary of Second Harvest and they've set a goal to generate 40,000 lbs of food donations from the local community.
