One in six Northeast Florida residents suffers from food insecurity – meaning they don’t know when or where they will get their next meal. In fact, one in five children struggles with hunger or food insecurity on a daily basis.
Lutheran Social Services has spent 40 years fighting local hunger through a wide array of hunger-relief initiatives. In 2014, Lutheran Social Services rebranded this portion of its outreach as the Nourishment Network to focus on specific populations that were slipping through the cracks. Current Nourishment Network programs include:
- The Nourishment Network Market, located onsite at 4615 Philips Highway, is the first client-choice pantry on the Southside of town. At the Market, open five days a week, clients can “shop” for items they want and need, for free. Households in Duval County can receive food once per month. Clients only need to present an ID. The Market serves more than 2,500 individuals each month.
Market hours:
Monday, Wednesday & Friday | 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Tuesday & Thursday | 3 p.m. – 5 p.m.
The Nourishment Network Market is presented by:
- Backpack Program provides nutritious food to schoolchildren receiving free or reduced-fee lunches during the school week. The food sent home with the students each Friday provides healthy meals and snacks for the weekend, when school meals are not available. The initiative continues to provide vital support, sending an average of 2,700 bags of food home with students every month.
LSS relies on volunteers groups to run food drives for backpack items and to help pack them each week. Click here for a list of needed items. If you are interested in volunteering to run a food drive and/or help pack bags, email us.
- Serving Our Seniors delivers food pantry distributions directly to the doors of low-income senior citizens who need it most.
Each month, we deliver bags of food to about 600 seniors at low-income housing complexes throughout Jacksonville. We work with service coordinators at each building to identify the residents who are most in need. We rely on volunteers to run food drives for needed items and help pack the bags each month. If you are interested in volunteering to run a food drive and/or help pack bags, email us.
For more information, contact Nourishment Network manager Jason Clark at jason.clark@lssjax.org.
