Sparked by the “60 Minutes” program on the homeless situation in Central Florida, a piece that prompted significant monetary donations, Lisa Moore, the community relations director at local staffing firm Kavaliro, decided to make a difference.
“My heart hurt and stomach turned the night I watched the special,” Moore said. “I wanted to help. I wanted to make an impact in an epidemic afflicting children and families in my own backyard.”
She organized “Kavaliro: Fueling the Community,” a quarterly food drive where she asks clients, friends and other local businesses to participate by donating food items to the Backpack Program at local elementary schools.
The Backpack Program benefits students who receive free or reduced lunch, or families facing financial difficulties. Each Friday, participating schools fill backpacks with nutritious food to be sent home with the students, providing 10 to 15 needful families with two breakfasts, two lunches and two dinners for the weekend. The empty backpacks are then returned the following Monday to be refilled for other families. Since the need is so great, the families rotate each week.
This quarter, Kavaliro organized local businesses from all over Orlando to help collect for Stenstrom Elementary, Lawton Elementary and Casselberry Elementary. The product to be collected this month: tuna! In total, 637 boxes of Tuna Helpers and 1,857 cans of tuna were collected.
But it does not stop there.
Just this year alone, Kavaliro, alongside other Orlando businesses, collected 234 containers of peanut butter, 275 containers of jelly, 884 boxes of mac & cheese, 567 individual servings of mac & cheese, 262 containers of sauce and 437 boxes of pasta and 403 miscellaneous items, all staples on the Backpack Program needs list.
Their valiant efforts continue to feed more than 200 families in Orlando every year.
"The need is definitely increasing, and the number of families we helped from the first year (three years ago) until last year has increased tenfold," said Stenstrom guidance counselor Terri Koepsell. "When Lisa Moore’s company said they would collect food quarterly, it was a weight taken off our shoulders; now we know we will get the meals we need for these families."
As a former Stenstrom Elementary school teacher, Moore was especially humbled by the outpouring of support from the community.
“I knew these people, so it’s that much more personal to me. It was unbelievably touching to see the gratitude from the students when the food is dropped off,” she said.
Unfortunately the need grows as the economy continues to struggle and residents linger in difficult circumstances.
“The ‘60 Minutes’ story moved all of us here at Kavaliro,” Moore said, “so much that we just knew we had to help in some capacity. Being that commitment is one of our core values, we are taking this opportunity to make a difference, and we encourage other Central Florida businesses to do the same.”