HCA Florida Healthcare gives $20,000, volunteers 300 hours for hunger relief

HCA Florida Healthcare’s $20,000 donation could cover about 6,024 meals in Seminole County, using Feeding America’s local average meal cost of $3.32, while 300 volunteer hours added labor to the hunger relief network. At least 80 colleagues from HCA Florida sites across Greater Orlando spent April 18 and April 23 sorting and packing food at Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida before presenting the gift.

The donation lands at a food bank that serves Seminole County along with Brevard, Lake, Marion, Orange, Osceola and Volusia counties, and Second Harvest says its network provides more than 300,000 meals a day. For a region where food banks are asked to stretch every dollar, the cash gift and volunteer shift both matter: one helps buy food, and the other helps move it quickly into pantry hands.

The effort was part of HCA Healthcare’s national We Show Up for Our Communities initiative, held each April to pair volunteering with charitable giving and local partnerships. HCA Florida Healthcare said the April work lifted its total contribution to Second Harvest to $70,000, more than 5,000 pounds of food and more than 800 volunteer hours since the partnership began in 2021.

The need remains wide. Feeding America estimates one in eight people and one in six children in Central Florida live in households that may be food insecure, a reminder that local hunger relief still depends on a mix of donations, volunteers and steady institutional support. Dan Samuels, Second Harvest’s director of philanthropy, said the organization was “deeply grateful” for the partnership, and David Shimp, CEO of HCA Florida Osceola Hospital, called Second Harvest “a key partner” in the mission to help families in need. HCA Florida Healthcare also reported that its colleagues from 650 facilities volunteered more than 38,000 hours and committed nearly $1.2 million to community partners in Florida in 2024.