Hardship puts Sanford family on Hope Helps’ receiving end
Every month, Irene Falzon’s family joins their church to serve food to the homeless in downtown Orlando. Even as they help those less fortunate, they are on the receiving end of charity, as well.
Falzon’s son and daughter are among 549 children who receive food from Kids of Hope, a Seminole County program that is supported by the Orlando Sentinel Family Fund Holiday Campaign. The goal of the program, organiz- ers say, is to make sure that families who rely on the school system for free or reduced-price lunch have food when school is out for extended vacations.
“The main goal for the program is to make sure the children are being fed when they’re out of school,” said Christine Wright, director of the Kids of Hope program at the Hope Helps nonprofit in Oviedo.
Kids of Hope provides bagged lunches that contain easy-to-prepare items such as applesauce, ravioli and juice boxes. They are distributed for all of the breaks in Seminole County’s school calendar, including summer vacation. Each paper sack is hand-decorated with stickers and artwork by volunteers, often young children and the elderly.
“It’s good, healthy food,” Falzon said as she picked up meals for her children, ages 12 and 17, ahead of the Thanksgiving break last week. “This is like our family. Our sec- ond home.”
Many families who are part of the Kids of Hope program also receive other types of assistance from Hope Helps. At its offices at 149 E. Broadway in Oviedo, the organization also runs a thrift store, a resource center and a food pantry that distributes everything from multi-grain Publix bread to desserts donated by restaurants. The center also benefits from two gardens operated by local churches, a partnership that provides fresh, seasonal vegetables.
On a recent Tuesday, the food pantry was handing out turkeys that were donated by employees from the Oviedo Post Office, much to the surprise — and appreciation — of the food bank’s clients.
Falzon’s family started getting help from Hope Helps several years ago. Her husband is disabled after a five-story fall during an elevator accident on his job. With the responsibilities of caring for him and her children, she said she is nolonger able to work as a home health nurse caring for the elderly.
After years of volunteering with the homeless, Falzon said she never expected that her family would be in their shoes. They lost their home to foreclosure in August and found themselves living in a hotel.
“Four people in one small bedroom for two months. It was very, very hard, but we survived,” she said.
Now they have found an apartment in Sanford, and Irene’s oldest daughter is planning to go to college next year. Her son, 12, likes football and band.
“We never knew it would happen to us. You never know,” she said. “I said to my kids to trust in God that things will be OK.”
Despite their own hardship, the family continues to help others. Last Thursday, Irene was picking up not only her food, but also items for an older woman from church, who she says her family has adopted as their “Grandma.”
The volunteer work has changed her son’s perspective. The big wish list he once had for Christmas has given way to plans focused on helping others.
“Now he says he’s giving his old clothes to the people in the feed-the-homeless [program],” she said.