Voices of the SNAP Challenge

Follow our participants as they take the challenge of living on a $4 a day per person food budget this week:

SNAP Challenge Blog: Ashlea Steiner

SNAP Challenge Blog: Gary Porter

SNAP Challenge Blog: Jim Vojcsik

SNAP Challenge Blog: Judith Jones

SNAP Challenge Blog: Kim Waser

SNAP Challenge Blog: Mariel Broffman

SNAP Challenge Blog: Mat Churchey

SNAP Challenge Blog: Renee Booth

SNAP Challenge Blog: Thomas Jefferson

The Treasure Coast Hunger-Free Community Coalition is a capacity-building collaborative project. We seek to develop and implement strategies to end hunger through policy, education, community organizing, and community development.

We seek to make our community food secure by ensuring that every individual living on the Treasure Coast has access to three healthy meals a day, seven days a week by 2015.

According to Feeding America's Map the Meal Gap study released on April 27^th, 2012, 18.3% of Treasure Coast residents are food insecure, with 107,880 people not knowing where their next meal is coming from. While 62% of the food insecure population qualifies for SNAP and other federal nutrition programs, 38% do not qualify and often must rely on charitable food assistance programs to help them meet their basic needs.  The average price of a meal is $2.64, well above the national average of $2.52, and the food budget shortfall per person per week is $15.00, $48,651,680 or 18,569,344 meals.

We will gather people together to make plans and enact change. 

The Treasure Coast Hunger-Free Community Coalition convenes federal, state and local government stakeholders with non-governmental organizations, churches, and local providers to develop a plan for an efficient use and delivery of our current resources to hungry individuals and families.

Treasure Coast Hunger-Free Community Coalition has four main functions:

• To serve as a community-wide forum for discussing food and hunger issues,

• To foster coordination between sectors in the food system and myriad hunger fighters,

• To evaluate and produce recommended policies that will lead to a hunger free Treasure Coast, and

• To recommend programs and services that address local hunger needs.

Coalition Priorities

Resource Assessment

Determine available resources for people seeking food assistance

Evaluate current resources based on geographic and meal time availability

Schedule listening tours for client input

Transportation & Logistics

Use list of food resources and local transportation information to determine level of access.

Develop strategies to increase access in areas with increased need and low access.

Gardening & Nutrition Education

Develop curriculum, schedule and locations for gardening classes.

Recruit partners in the community to help obtain seeds, gardening, tools, and other resources

Develop nutrition education strategy to educate clients (materials, recipes, classes, cooking demonstrations).

Work with food resource partners to implement strategy.

Promotion of Food Assistance Services

Develop a plan to share list of resources with community partners and the public, including all relevant audiences such as faith-based organizations and elected officials.

For more information about the Treasure Coast Hunger-Free Community Coalition, please contact Krista Garofalo at 772-489-3034 or kgarofalo@tcfoodbank.org