Each year, at the conclusion of its annual trade show, IDDBA encourages product donations from exhibiting companies in an effort to reduce wasted food and help those in need. As IDDBA 19 was hosted in Orlando, FL, the association collaborated with the city’s Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida to give back to the community.
Hundreds of exhibiting companies at the trade show provided donations, contributing to an amount of 176,315 pounds of food, which translates to 146,870 meals for the food bank.
IDDBA is a nonprofit membership organization serving the dairy, deli, bakery, cheese and supermarket foodservice industries. Member services include the annual trade show, leading-edge research, training programs, management tools and an annual trends report.
Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida is a private, nonprofit organization that collects, stores and distributes donated food to more than 550 feeding partners in six Central Florida counties: Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia. Last year, with the help of numerous donors, volunteers and the community, the food bank distributed nearly 58 million meals to partner programs such as food pantries, soup kitchens, women’s shelters, senior centers, day care centers and Kids Cafes.
In addition to helping feed the line of our neighbors who need help, Second Harvest has a program through which economically-challenged adults who graduate from our 16-week culinary training program are placed in better-than-minimum-wage jobs that set them and their families on a path to self-sustainability.
Second Harvest also helps connect people who are eligible to receive SNAP food assistance benefits with the resources they need to access the program and get help.
