When I joined Harry Chapin Food Bank in 2016, the hunger-relief organization provided 20.6 million pounds of food annually to 163,840 of our neighbors experiencing hunger.
At the time, I was quoted as saying, “I’m quite certain that there are more people we could be feeding if we were able to grow our resources. I know we have an opportunity to work on, not only how many people we feed, but making sure we are adequately feeding everybody in all of the five counties we serve.”
Fast forward 10 years and the numbers help illustrate the story of hunger in Southwest Florida. In 2025, the organization distributed 38.7 million pounds of food and served an average of 300,000 neighbors each month. We’re on pace to exceed those numbers in 2026.
Over the past decade, the hunger crisis has doubled in Southwest Florida. Diving deeper into the data, though, shows food insecurity soared since 2016, led by a surge in the region’s most affluent county:
· Charlotte: 2.4 million to 5.2 million pounds (+117%)
· Collier: 4.2 million to 11.5 million pounds (+174%)
· Glades: 458,000 to 705,200 pounds (+54%)
· Hendry: 1.2 million to 2.2 million pounds (+83%)
· Lee: 11.3 million to 19 million pounds (+68%)
Our job is not done and neither is mine. Harry Chapin Food Bank’s mission is to end hunger − that’s my personal mission, too. In a community as prosperous as ours, no one should have to skip dinner or split pills to make medications last longer. No one should have to forgo medical care because they already spent their paycheck on groceries, rent and utilities. And we can’t forget about pets; many of our neighbors are struggling to afford their food, too. Hunger often does not look like what many imagine – and it can happen to any of us, our friends, our family members or our neighbors.
It’s not just a problem for individuals without jobs, for single parents or for seniors with a fixed income. It’s a problem for all of us. Some of the people we’re seeing in food distribution lines are educators, first responders and public service workers − your neighbors and my neighbors. These are individuals who have never asked for help in the past, nor did they ever imagine they would need assistance.
We live in challenging times. That’s why Harry Chapin Food Bank has taken a leadership role in the region’s quest to end hunger. The Food Bank is currently building a Hunger Action Center in Fort Myers that will dramatically expand its capacity to source, store and distribute food. As construction continues on that warehouse and distribution center, plans are underway to create a complementary facility in Naples to provide Collier County residents with additional access to nutritious food.
Research indicates that we’ll need to distribute more than 50 million pounds of food annually in Southwest Florida by 2030 and 100 million pounds by 2050 to meet demand. The continued well-being of our community makes it essential that we meet that level of demand. Building boldly requires us to be courageous, confident and willing to take action in ways that go beyond conventional norms. Specifically designed to more than double our capacity and strengthen our operations, the new Hunger Action Center will allow us to store and distribute more fresh produce and healthy foods to neighbors who need it.
Over the past decade, Southwest Florida has overcome multiple hurricanes, a pandemic, bumps in the housing market, inflation, unemployment swings, transportation challenges and more. However, hunger has continued to snowball. The development of a Hunger Action Center is one solution, but it’s going to take our entire community stepping forward – individuals, businesses, nonprofits, foundations and volunteers – to address challenges standing in the way of a hunger-free future.
It is Harry Chapin Food Bank’s goal to make sure that no one in our community has to go hungry. Our work is essential.
Richard LeBer is president and CEO of Harry Chapin Food Bank, Southwest Florida’s largest hunger-relief nonprofit and the region’s only Feeding America partner food bank. Join LeBer’s quest to end hunger by visiting HarryChapinFoodBank.org.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Southwest Florida hunger crisis doubles in past decade | Opinion
Reporting by Richard LeBer / Fort Myers News-Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Richard LeBer | USA TODAY Network
