LECANTO, Fla. — A Citrus County nonprofit is helping provide security when it comes to food and meals for families in need.

What You Need To Know

  • For 15 years, Citrus County Blessings has been operating its hunger relief program, helping ensure no child goes hungry in the county

  • The pantry serves five primary schools — assisting more than 900 students

  • Work is made possible thanks to the 400 volunteers who help out every month

  • According to the nonprofit, 23% of Citrus County's school-age children are in poverty and are food insecure

For 15 years, Citrus County Blessings has been operating its hunger relief program that is helping ensure no child goes hungry in the county.

“Our enrollments this year have reached just over 3,000 kids in Citrus County,” said operations director Rachelle Garrett Butler.

Working at an assembly line, volunteers with the nonprofit pack bags filled with food to help feed students throughout Citrus County.

“We are the weekend food program for children in Citrus County that may lack access to nutrition on the weekends when they’re home not receiving the breakfast and lunches that the schools provide,” said Butler.

The pantry serves five primary schools — assisting more than 900 students.

That’s made possible thanks to the 400 volunteers who help out every month, including volunteers like Debbie Greenbaum, a former teacher.

“When I was a teacher, I was the one who got the bags from the volunteers and gave them to the students,” said Greenbaum. “So when I came here, I said I wanted to be on the other end- I want to be able to pack the bags for the teachers.”

It’s volunteers like Greenbaum and her team who help make the work possible.

“They pack once a month for their school and then the next week we have another team come in and they pack for that school,” said Christina Reed, executive director of Citrus County Blessings. “It makes it really easy for them to just come in, grab everything ... and then take it over to the school.”

The work being done is quite impactful for the community.

“23% of our school-age children are in poverty here and are food insecure,” said Reed. “Having a program like this where we can reach those kids and make sure they have food to get them thru the weekends so they can come to school ready to learn.”

The program has evolved over its 15 years of existence, expanding the types of foods they send home to students — like fresh fruit.

“We’re constantly working on our program to evolve it, to look at what foods we can send home and always looking to provide more nutritional foods for our kids,” Reed said. “We have one more big holiday pack for spring break and then we’ll go right into our summer program.”

Those with Citrus County Blessings say because they are growing, they hope to have a larger space in the future. Helping serve even more students throughout the county.