Helping elementary school students and their families get healthy, nutritional food is the goal of Benny’s Bodega, a new school market opening at Kissimmee Elementary School. Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida teamed up with the Poinsette Foundation to support the market, located in a portable, and celebrated with a ribbon cutting ceremony last week.
“This is our seventh location in Osceola County,” said Briana Rebello, School Partnerships Program Manager for Second Harvest. “The school market is a food resource for students and families. Students can come in and grab a snack, or families can shop for groceries for the week, all of this without question of need. It’s run by student ambassadors, so it limits the stigma associated with accessing the resource. There’s no identifying information, so there’s no stigma. It’s just a really welcome, opening space.”
Rebello said one in six children in Central Florida are at risk of experiencing food insecurity. The store focuses on non-perishable items rather than prepare meals—items families can take home and make meals out of. Students get involved through unpacking groceries, stocking the shelves, helping with distribution, handing out bags, and keeping track of how many students and families use the service.
“When it comes to students of all ages, the biggest challenge in traditional food distribution is access. That’s why it’s critical for us to meet students exactly where they’re at—on their school campuses,” said Rebello.
“We are very thankful for the Second Harvest Food Bank and the Poinsette Foundation for sponsoring Benny’s Bodega, our food pantry here at Kissimmee Elementary School,” said school Principal Elizabeth Terry. “It’s given our student ambassadors an opportunity to stock our food pantry every week and our families an opportunity to shop twice a week and get the food that they need.”
The Bodega is regularly open a couple of hours a week but can be accessed at other times by going through the school administration. Terry noted Kissimmee Elementary already provides free breakfast and lunch to their students.
“We found that a lot of students were coming to us every morning still hungry, so this lets our parents have the opportunity to shop for things that they can cook for dinner, for the weekends- and to provide that so they can be focused on learning when they are here, and not on being hungry. This allows our families not to worry about food insecurities. Our families have been very thankful to have this opportunity, and it has established a community within our school.”
“What happens beyond the classroom often has a greater impact on students and their ability to achieve,” said Mia Poinsette, founder and Executive Director of the Poinsette Foundation Founded in 2022 the Foundation is a self-funded nonprofit dedicated to changing lives through education in Orange and Osceola Counties, The Foundation reached out to Second Harvest to see how the food pantry program could be brought into their service area. Kissimmee Elementary was already on Second Harvest’s waitlist as a potential site, so the support from Poinsette Foundation made it possible to open it up sooner rather than later.
“We believe that hunger should never be a barrier to learning. Benny’s Bodega is the fruition of what can happen when community partners come together, creating real change,” continued Poinsette. “Together we will combat childhood hunger one student and one family at a time.”
As Audrey Sosa, a student Food Ambassador said, “Food should always be shared, and I think that Benny’s Bodega is going to change our community.”
