Aetna Announces Continued Stocking of School Pantries in Florida

Aetna

Aetna Better Health of Florida is giving back to the central Florida community this week by stocking 65 school pantries for the 2023-2024 academic school year. This marks a crucial expansion of the program for Aetna.

Today, Aetna announced the expansion of its School Partnerships Program through a $115,150 grant provided by Aetna, a CVS health company. Aetna has confirmed that this money will be given to elementary through post-secondary institutions stock their food supplies for the 2023-2024 school year.

Currently, schools across Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia counties participate in Second Harvest’s program, which is designed to give students and families access to the nutrition they need after school and on weekends.

"We continue to see more and more families – many for the first time – having to make difficult household budget decisions due to higher costs of necessities," said Derrick Chubbs, President and CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank. "This latest grant from Aetna will help us continue to support student-centered and stigma-reducing access to nutritious food for students and their families."

Aetna Better Health of Florida CEO Jennifer Sweet added, "We’re committed to helping people in under-resourced communities achieve their best health and know that improving health starts with good nutrition. Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida is doing great work providing healthy and safe food to students and, through this."

Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida reports distributing enough food for 300,000 meals per day, yet one in five children in the local region remains at risk of going to bed hungry at any given night. For more information about how to support Second Harvest's fight against hunger, visit www.FeedHopeNow.org.

Jim McCool

Jim is a graduate of Florida State University where he studied Political Science, Religion and Criminology. He has been a reporter for the Floridian since January of 2021 and will start law school in 2024.