I moved my family to Southwest Florida in 2022, four months before Hurricane Ian devastated the coast. The Category 5 storm and its aftermath killed at least 156 people and caused more than $112 billion in damage, making it the third costliest storm in the country's history after Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Harvey.
I had joined e2Companies that same year, and I was already talking with the executive director of Midwest Food Bank's Florida division about bringing my family in to volunteer when the call went out for disaster relief.
The food bank lost power for almost a week.
I showed up to find a dedicated family of volunteers working around the clock in a warehouse without electricity, packing disaster relief boxes for those in need during one of the most desperate weeks this region has faced.
Volunteers and staff worked 15-hour days during the ten days following the storm. Over 400 volunteers logged nearly 1,500 hours of service. In total, over 3,500 Disaster Relief boxes were packed and donated, along with 30,000 cases of bottled water and 54,000 pounds of fresh produce. This was all in the first two weeks after Hurricane Ian made landfall.
That was my introduction to Midwest Food Bank. Since then, our partnership with them has grown, and we're proud to be part of such an important mission.
A Small Team with Extensive Reach
Midwest Food Bank is a faith-based hunger and disaster relief organization with 12 locations, including Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Texas, East Africa, and Haiti.
Its corporate partnerships and 37,000 volunteers help the organization make the most of every donation. Because their overhead costs stay low, about 99 cents of every dollar donated goes directly toward its programming. Each dollar provides roughly $35 worth of food, Development Manager Holly Taylor said.
The Florida division operates with a staff of seven and runs on the strength of its 800 volunteers.
It serves 20 counties and provides food to 223 nonprofit agencies, reaching an estimated 690,000 people every month. By square footage, it's the smallest of Midwest Food Bank's divisions, yet it serves the most people.
That includes providing kids with food throughout the year, as well as stocking food pantries and local soup kitchens.
The food bank receives almost daily deliveries of donations and distributes them to agencies at its warehouse.
"We pride ourselves on focusing on a higher percentage of healthy food," Taylor said. "Currently about 63% of our grants are from the Healthy Eats program; the national average is closer to 30%. So we're really building relationships with farms in Florida that supply us with those foods."
How e2Companies Partners with Midwest Food Bank
When I started developing e2 for Good, our local philanthropic partnership initiative, I wanted to start with food. I already knew Midwest Food Bank well from my previous career on the corporate side, donating food to the organization from Kellogg's and General Mills. When I learned that their Florida location was just 15 minutes from our office, I was eager to work with them again.
Our company's mission is to deliver reliable power to mission-critical operations that can't afford to go dark, especially during a disaster. A stable food supply is just as important to a community's growth as power. Working alongside an organization that meets such a fundamental need was a natural fit for us.
The Florida division of Midwest Food Bank is positioned in an area where there is both significant wealth and increasing food insecurity. This gap is accentuated by the frequency of extreme weather events over the last several years. The Florida division is uniquely positioned to bridge this gap by responding to these events and distributing resources where they are needed most.
To support Midwest Food Bank, e2 Executives serve on the Advisory Board, and we regularly bring volunteers to the warehouse to help pack food into boxes. Additionally, we help support fundraising events, such as the Harvest of Hope Gala in the winter and the Out Drive Hunger Classic in the fall.
Volunteering has also become a family affair, as my 12-year-old son now stops by to help with Tuesday and Thursday load-out events.
How You Can Help
As mentioned above, Midwest Food Bank is powered almost entirely by volunteers.
The need is steady year-round and grows in the summer off-season, when seasonal residents head north and volunteer numbers thin out.
There are a few good ways to get involved:
- Volunteer as an individual, a family, or a company team. Corporate volunteer days make excellent team-building, and many employers offer paid volunteer time off. Find volunteer opportunities here.
- Sponsor or attend an event. The division's third annual Out-Drive Hunger Golf Classic is coming up on October 24, with proceeds going back to Midwest Food Bank, and its largest annual fundraiser, the Harvest for Hope Gala, returns in February 2027.
- Donate. Because of that near-1% overhead, financial gifts go far. We make it easy donate here with many different options to Help Feed the Need in Southwest Florida.
If your company is looking for a way to give back in Southwest Florida, I'd encourage you to reach out to the Midwest Food Bank Florida team about a volunteer day. Come take the tour, see the operation, and meet the people behind it.
Learn more and take your next step.