Inaugural St. Augustine Empty Bowls Luncheon canceled - to be replaced by food distributions

Second Harvest North Florida has canceled its the the inaugural St. Augustine Empty Bowls Luncheon, originally scheduled for Tuesday, April 26, at Flagler College.

Unfortunately, ticket sales are not sufficient to warrant putting on the event.  In all good conscience, Second Harvest cannot expend time, resources and funds on hosting an event that does not have the potential to raise meaningful funds to help feed people.  As a result, we are canceling the event for this year.

In lieu of this year's event, Bank of America has generously agreed to fund two mobile food distributions in the St. Augustine community in the coming weeks. Thousands of indivuduals in need will be served.

We remain hopeful that, as the St. Augustine community becomes increasingly aware of the good work we are doing and of the critical need to feed people, especially children, in your community, you will want to attend a future Empty Bowls Luncheon.  We know that, once you attend the luncheon, you will find that it is a meaningful and special opportunity to help others in your community.  Look for news about next year’s Empty Bowls Luncheon.

About Second Harvest North Florida and its St. Augustine operation
Second Harvest North Florida is the oldest and largest program of Lutheran Social Services of Northeast Florida. LSS was founded in 1979 by area Lutherans and business leaders to fill gaps in services offered in the community for people in need. Second Harvest gathers food from local and national sources, shares these resources with more than 400 nonprofit organizations in 18 north Florida counties and helps thousands of people each year who are hungry or at risk of not having being able to provide food for themselves and their families. In addition to collecting and distributing food, Second Harvest serves children in after-school programs through its Kids Cafe and BackPack programs and in summer camps through its Summer Lunch program. It also takes Mobile Pantries filled with Family Boxes of food to people living in neighborhoods with the greatest needs. The St. Augustine branch of Second Harvest North Florida began operation in October 2010 in order to increase emergency food relief in St. Johns, Flagler and Putnam counties. Three full-time staff members operate the St. Augustine facility, which is located at 1731 Dobbs Road. Call 904.730.8234 for more information about any of these programs and services.

Emergency food relief in St. Johns, Flagler and Putnam counties
In 2010, the Second Harvest North Florida St. Augustine facility distributed 1,547,136 pounds of food into the surrounding community, the equivalent of nearly 1.2 million meals for people in need. Since taking over operations on Oct. 1, 2010, Second Harvest is averaging 177,166 pounds distributed per month – an increase of nearly 58,000 pounds per month.