{"id":35038,"date":"2025-11-05T23:31:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T23:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/35038\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T23:31:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T23:31:06","slug":"cental-florida-organizations-host-food-drive-for-seniors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/35038\/","title":{"rendered":"Cental Florida organizations host food drive for seniors"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONGWOOD, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Several organizations in Central Florida are stepping up to provide food assistance as the government shutdown<\/a> continues to impact recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday,\u00a0Family First Firm<\/a>\u00a0partnered with\u00a0Senior Resource Alliance<\/a>\u00a0to host a food drive at the\u00a0Northland Church<\/a>\u00a0in Longwood to make sure seniors have food on the table.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

Family First Firm partnered with Senior Resource Alliance to host a food drive in Longwood for seniors
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Volunteers gave away more than 175 bags of food and more than $5,000 in gift cards to local grocery stores
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Florida currently ranks fourth in the nation for SNAP enrollment, with nearly 3 million people depending on food stamps
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Leaders with Family First Firm and the Senior Resource Alliance say they are already planning to hold another distribution later this month
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No SNAP? Where to find food assistance in Central Florida<\/a><\/p>\n

One bag at a time, volunteer Lili-Ann Gallagher waited for the next car in line, where a senior waited.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou receive a lot out of it just by helping out and giving out and speaking to people. It\u2019s so nice to be able to do something worthwhile,\u201d Gallagher said.<\/p>\n

She was one of many volunteers who showed up Wednesday morning for the food distribution at Northland Church in Longwood.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just exciting to see that different organizations are willing to come and support our seniors,\u201d\u00a0said Geoff Hoatson, chief executive officer and founding attorney of Family First Firm. \u201cYou know, I feel like oftentimes they tend to get overlooked in our society. And so it\u2019s very exciting to see, you know, both Senior Resource Alliance, Family First Firm, our other partners, all combining and coming out here to really provide support to people in times of need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida currently ranks fourth in the nation for SNAP enrollment, with nearly 3 million people depending on food stamps. With uncertainty over when the benefits on their EBT cards will be reloaded, for many, it\u2019s getting harder to get by.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery difficult, very difficult. I try to work and stuff, and it\u2019s tough,\u201d said Debee Ford, a food recipient.<\/p>\n

Many are depending on food distributions like this one to put food on the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s awesome because there are a lot of people who need it right now,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n

According to leaders with Senior Resource Alliance, at least 13,000 seniors in Central Florida are SNAP beneficiaries \u2014 and for them, having this help is now essential.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a blessing. \u2026 I haven\u2019t received benefits in two months waiting on approval, and now I got approval but as you know, the shutdown is now,\u201d said Wanda Sapp, another recipient.<\/p>\n

Starting even earlier than their set time of 9:30 a.m., seniors lined up to receive a bag of food per family, which was placed in their cars by volunteers.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeniors helping seniors,\u201d Gallagher said.<\/p>\n

Each bag contained food items like jambalaya rice, crackers, toiletries and other essentials.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see food as medicine, food as healing,” said Karla Radka, president and chief executive officer of Senior Resource Alliance. “And our work is to always put the needs of our seniors first. It is our mission that we take with responsibility, with great honor, and with great leadership, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Volunteers gave away more than 175 bags of food and more than $5,000 in gift cards to local grocery stores.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome out, you know, they are here to help,” Sapp said. “Don\u2019t be ashamed. If you need it, come. It\u2019s a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leaders with Family First Firm and the Senior Resource Alliance said after seeing the demand and need in the community, they are already planning to hold another food distribution later this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONGWOOD, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Several organizations in Central Florida are stepping up to provide food assistance as the government shutdown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[6506,575,4369,2582,766,115,772,139,141,140,17141],"class_list":{"0":"post-35038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-app-food","9":"tag-food","10":"tag-food-insecurity-and-hunger","11":"tag-government-shutdown","12":"tag-massiel-leyva","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-on-air-ticker-article","15":"tag-orlando","16":"tag-orlando-headlines","17":"tag-orlando-news","18":"tag-topic-food"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35038","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=35038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}