All Faiths receives DeSoto gift
All Faiths Food Bank, which has served DeSoto County for over 25 years – including the opening of the DeSoto Food and Resource Center in Arcadia in 2019 – has received a $600,000 gift to help subsidize three new mobile pantries.
Building on their initial grant to support the opening of the DeSoto FRC, the new grant from Elsa and Peter Soderberg will help to provide food to neighbors in remote areas of DeSoto County as well as offer benefits assistance, nutrition education, wraparound services on-site and compensation for a truck driver. The funding will be distributed on a payment schedule running through June 2026.
“We believe collaborating with likeminded funders optimizes the opportunities for catalytic change and we will continue to support the DeSoto FRC as the needs of the community evolve and more is understood about how to best serve people living in DeSoto County,” Peter Soderberg said.
Rural areas that grow most of the nation’s food paradoxically face deeper struggles with hunger than those in metropolitan areas. In DeSoto County, where agriculture is the dominant industry, the number of persons living in poverty is nearly 26% (the national average is 12.8%). With a population of just over 34,400, median household income in DeSoto County is just under $40,000 versus a median income in Sarasota County of nearly $72,000.
The Food and Resource Center is an innovative model for the Feeding America network. Not only is All Faiths addressing hunger but focusing on the root causes, which is essential to lifting families and communities out of poverty.
“By getting to the underlying issues causing hunger and ensuring community members are receiving the benefits that are available to them, All Faiths is strengthening family stability, lifting people out of poverty, and offering prospects for a healthier, better future,” All Faiths CEO Sandra Frank said. “We are incredibly grateful for the Soderberg Foundation and our other donors’ commitment to ending hunger and improving lives in DeSoto County.”
For more about the DeSoto Food and Resource Center and All Faiths Food Bank, visit allfaithsfoodbank.org.