{"id":30561,"date":"2023-02-27T00:26:10","date_gmt":"2023-02-27T05:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=30561"},"modified":"2023-02-27T00:26:15","modified_gmt":"2023-02-27T05:26:15","slug":"publix-hosting-first-hunger-summit-to-address-growing-food-insecurities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/02\/27\/publix-hosting-first-hunger-summit-to-address-growing-food-insecurities\/","title":{"rendered":"Publix hosting first Hunger Summit to address growing food insecurities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are more than seven million people in the Southeastern United States who are food insecure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"894\" height=\"376\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 894px) 100vw, 894px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screenshot-17.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-30562\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screenshot-17.png 894w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screenshot-17-300x126.png 300w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screenshot-17-768x323.png 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That number, courtesy of Publix Super Markets, is part of a trend that has only gotten worse since the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/feedingtampabay.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Feeding Tampa Bay<\/a>, CEO Thomas Mantz says the food bank is now serving more families than it ever has in its history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMost folks would think the pandemic was the worst for families we serve,\u201d Mantz said. &#8220;It isn\u2019t.&nbsp;As it has turned out, now is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Inflation has wreaked havoc on families\u2019 budgets, causing some to cut back on other expenses to afford food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other families with no financial wiggle room are now searching out nonprofits and food banks for help to keep food on the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hannah Herring, Publix\u2019s media relations manager, says as the super market continues to make perishable food donations to dozens of food banks across the Southeast, the struggle is becoming worse for some families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Publix has donated $46 million to nonprofits in the past decade, as well as millions of dollars worth of perishable items that would go bad otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now it is hosting its first forum on Thursday in Lakeland called the Hunger Summit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is bringing together U.S. representatives, around three dozen food bank organizations, the USDA, Publix experts and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Herring says the purpose of the summit is to \u201chave open dialogue to share best practices and to talk about how we can all work together to help hunger in our community, and help put food on the table of our neighbors in need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the Hunger Summit gets underway, Publix on Thursday is also launching its&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/corporate.publix.com\/community\/corporate-campaigns\/feeding-more-together\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Feeding More Together campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s an invitation to customers to donate at store check-outs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To learn more about Publix community initiatives or how to help those in need, visit&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/corporate.publix.com\/community\/corporate-campaigns\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are more than seven million people in the Southeastern United States who are food insecure. That number, courtesy of Publix Super Markets, is part of a trend that has&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[4629],"class_list":["post-30561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-publix-hosting-first-hunger-summit-to-address-growing-food-insecurities"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}