New refrigerated truck delivers hundreds of meals to Seminole County families in need

Truck was donated to Second Harvest by Darden Restaurants

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. – Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida handed out hundreds of pounds of food in Altamonte Springs on Wednesday by using a brand-new refrigerated truck donated by Darden Restaurants.

The truck was donated in January and on Wednesday, it made its first delivery.

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“This is the truck’s first maiden voyage to help distribute food in the community and we used it to help move to our new warehouse facility a little bit but this is the first time that we actually used this truck to get food out to those who need it,” Dan Samuels with Second Harvest Food Bank said.

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Cars lined up as early as 6 a.m. outside the Apostolic Church of Jesus.

Valeriano Leon, 77, and his wife waited for hours to get their meals. The two are retired and have been in quarantine throughout the pandemic and said they are waiting to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

“We thank them from our hearts because this is a huge help for us,” Leon said.

Second Harvest Food Bank handed out 96 million meals throughout Central Florida within the last year.

Works said the new truck will help them get even more food out to the community.

“We are all in this together, we really are and I think that’s the part that hits me the most is how our community has turned out over this past year to make all of this possible,” Samuels said.