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Boca Helping Hands Solicits Help from the Community During September’s Hunger Action Month

During September’s Hunger Action Month, Boca Helping Hands (BHH) has several ways that community members can help feed local families who are food insecure. The public can get involved by donating non-perishable items, volunteering, and contributing needed funds.

Feeding America projects that over 181,000 Palm Beach County residents are suffering from food insecurity; of those, nearly 53,000 are children. In July, the U.S. Department of Labor reported an annual inflation rate of 9.1% through June. This hike in the cost of living can be seen in the increased demand for hunger relief services, with some of the BHH pantry bag locations distributing twice the number of bags compared to this time last year.

“Hunger Action Month is a reminder that there are local families and children who do not know where their next meal is coming from, and, as a community, we can help,” said Greg Hazle, Executive Director of Boca Helping Hands. “Unfortunately, inflation being the highest it’s been in four decades has made it much harder for families to put food on the table.”

Boca Helping Hands has planned a calendar of events for Hunger Action Month, with a suggested activity each day in September to get the community involved in combating the current hardships. Initiatives include group volunteer shifts for corporate partners, a Tackle Hunger Cereal Drive event at FAU’s home football game on Sept. 10, and donating the cost of a box for their annual Thanksgiving Box Brigade. Visit BocaHelpingHands.org/HungerActionMonth to view the full calendar.

Boca Helping Hands began as a small soup kitchen in 1998, just serving the Boca Raton area. Over the past 24 years, the organization has expanded throughout Palm Beach County, growing its hunger relief efforts, expanding access to healthcare for uninsured clients, as well as providing job training opportunities and emergency financial assistance.

Boca Helping Hands’ food programs include the Pantry Bag Program, which distributes non-perishable and fresh groceries to clients from five locations in Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, and Lake Worth. In 2021, Boca Helping Hands distributed more than 70,000 pantry bags. The Hot Meal Program provides hot and nutritious lunches six days a week at their East Boca Raton location and a dinner on Fridays in Lake Worth. In 2021, Boca Helping Hands served over 80,000 hot meals.

The Homebound Meal Program provides individuals who are homebound due to age, ailment, or disability with meals delivered to their homes. In 2021 Boca Helping provided more than 4,120 meals to local homebound clients.

For more than a decade, BHH has been providing local schoolchildren with meals to ensure they’re getting enough to eat over the weekend when they can’t depend on a school meal. This past academic year, BHH provided over 1,500 students in 12 Palm Beach County schools with 46,733 boxes, with each including six meals and three snacks.

In a typical year, the organization sees a 10-15% increase in demand for the Pantry Bag Program. In response,Boca Helping Hands opened an additional warehouse facility in 2021 at its main campus in East Boca Raton with the capacity to potentially double the number of people served over the next five to ten years.

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