Mobile School Pantry,<\/a> first experienced the reality of hunger when delivering Thanksgiving meals. What she saw that day changed her life and sparked a calling she couldn\u2019t ignore.\u00a0 <\/p>\n“I left empowered to do something more than just fill a gap at a holiday,” Wolland recalls.<\/p>\n
Her efforts led to the launch of the first Mobile School Pantry at Sterling Elementary in 2013, serving just 13 families. More than a decade later, she says the need remains urgent.<\/p>\n
“Children can’t begin to learn, focus in school, or behave properly if they’re hungry,” she says. “Doing long math and reading takes a full tummy.”<\/p>\n
Each pantry allows families to choose from 25 to 30 fresh fruits and vegetables. Today, the Mobile School Pantry feeds an incredible 1,200 to 1,500 families monthly across Broward County. <\/p>\n
After helping fill thousands of empty bellies, Wolland is being celebrated this Women\u2019s History Month through the Health Foundation of South Florida\u2019s Inspiring Women of Health initiative. <\/p>\n
Loreen Chant, president of the foundation, says the program highlights the vital role women play in healthcare.<\/p>\n
“This initiative shines a light on people doing great work, creates an example for young women to follow, and celebrates the positive impact they have on their communities,” Chant says. <\/p>\n
For Wolland, the honor is meaningful, but her mission remains clear: access to nutritious food isn\u2019t just about feeding families\u2014it\u2019s about health, education, and opportunity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly one in five children in Broward County goes home hungry, part of a growing food insecurity crisis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[15823,7071,249,251,250,53989],"class_list":["post-198046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-broward","tag-children","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-womens-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198046","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=198046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}