HOPE Helps<\/a> in Oviedo, says November and December were busy. The food pantry, located at 812 Eyrie Drive, is open four days a week. However, Esser says Saturdays are becoming busier.<\/p>\n\u201cOur clients have to judge when they can get a ride as well as some of them do have some kind of part-time job or children,\u201d said Esser. \u201cSo we\u2019re getting more and more on a Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only do families stop by and receive the food, but volunteers deliver it too through HOPE\u2019s Emergency Network Service (HENS).<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of health or transportation, they no longer can get here,\u201d said Esser. \u201cSo a nice group of food \u2014 canned goods, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables \u2014 are put together and delivered to their home.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the demand grows, leaders with HOPE Helps say they\u2019re serving about 200 households a week. They received a $25,000 grant from the Oviedo Medical Center, donated through HCA Healthcare\u2019s Healthier Tomorrow Fund.<\/p>\n
\u201c[HOPE] is an amazing organization in this town that really does help people,\u201d said Oviedo Medical Center spokesperson Cathy Perry. \u201cAnd that just aligns with our mission, which is to help improve lives, whether that\u2019s in the hospital or in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joan Faulkner, the CEO of HOPE Helps, says the grant will go directly towards helping feed anyone in Seminole County who knocks on their door.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe timing of that grant coming in was a true game changer for us because we were able to better serve the families that were in need,\u201d said Faulkner.<\/p>\n
The money is a financial relief after wrapping up the holiday season, when Faulkner says they saw an increase in clients.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople tend to donate during the months of November and December as well, but this need is year-round,\u201d explained Faulkner. \u201cSo, going into January, it\u2019s no different for us. We\u2019re still serving 200 households a week or more, and these families need that more than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
The food pantry accepts donations Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Friday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OVIEDO, Fla. \u2014 When the government shut down late last year during the holiday season, millions of families…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1015,4369,115,139,141,140,1014],"class_list":["post-122399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-emma-delamo","tag-food-insecurity-and-hunger","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-seminole-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}