November 5, 2025 • 16 mins
Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell talks about his latest article, this one about the SNAP food crisis and how Central Floridians can help.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
You know that thing with the last square toilet paper,
the last grain.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Of kitty litter.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
We used to have the kitchen garbage in the dorm
at school, and you would stack that garbage can There
be a mountain there, and everybody would just keep stacking
on the mountain, and whoever knocked the mountain over had.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
To take the garbage out. You'd write out of a
Simpsons episode. I got a ups package due today.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I don't think it's coming out.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Oh man, too soon.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
They found everybody yet. Savage dollar is your fork? Lucky
word d O L L A R. Slide over to
a real radio out of Fiminton. That away for your
chance in one thousand bucks. Dollar is the word. Guys,
go get that money.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I'm Jim.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
There's dead Jack's here as well, Hight. Every single Wednesday
around this time, our friend Scott Mexwell joins us from
the Orlando Sentinel. He writes columns over there Wednesday, Thursdays
and Sundays.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
He's sweet Heat. They call him the truth Dragon.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Loud for mister Scott Maxwell.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Look at this guy. Look at this guy.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
You got a little extra cup at your step today?
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Yeah, do you have a talk this morning or something
with your college shirt.
Speaker 5 (01:12):
Oh uh no, I would ad ditched that a long
time ago. No, as soon as I hang up with you, guys,
I got an event.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
I'm going to Yeah, what are you doing today? Is
that something you can talk about? Or no?
Speaker 5 (01:22):
Yeah, actually it's gonna sound like a humble brag now,
but I was you.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
This was not planned. Going to the Victims Service Center
is giving me an award?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Oh nice, yay, look at you worked with.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
Them for a long time. It's a great organization they are.
They basically were an offshoot of a county. But basically,
when people get mugged, when they get raped, when they
get all these things, you know, the cops they focus
on the bad guys, which is well they should, but
there's really no part of our society that focuses on
the victims. And there are people who don't know where
to begin picking up the pieces of their lives.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
So they do a great job.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
You know. The thing is, you know you're right.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
That is such a great topic, by the way, because
it's never spoken about the trauma, the emotional trauma that
happens when you're robbed or when something like that happens,
not even when it's a violent crime, like you just
feel you know, people just feel unsafe for a long
period of time. It's hard to deal with emotionally.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Sometimes.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, absolutely, it could be.
Speaker 5 (02:18):
It could be getting a purse snatched, but to what
you're talking about, even like more invasive if your home
gets broken into, there are people, especially if you live alone,
that have trouble getting over that starting to sleep again.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
And that's why people don't even know where to start.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
And these folks have social workers who are by the way,
some of the most underpaid people in all of society
because they have to go through like six years of
higher ed to make twenty.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Five thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
But they got all these social workers and they'll help
and I mean sometimes it's like we're gonna help you
get your bank records back and get and sometimes it's
going to talk through your trauma. So yeah, like I said,
they're the only ones that really sort of focus on
the victim part of crime.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Scott Maxwell joining us from the New Orlando Sentinel. Like
I said earlier Wednesday, Thursdays and Sundays, you can read
his column. Doing a lot of reporting here in Central Florida.
I noticed that you were talking to a good friend
of all of ours, Greg Higgerson, about what's happening with
SNAP benefits and where people can go, Like it's dominated
a lot of the local news cycle, just you know,
basically people printing where you may be able to grab
(03:17):
a meal or you know, get on a plan or something.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
What did you guys talk about today? What's going on?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, it's a lot of the same things.
Speaker 5 (03:24):
And I think the number that you I think you've
mentioned it before and you and I were sharing in
a text that kind of blows a lot of people's
minds is that one in eight floridiums one in eight
is on the SNAP the supplemental the what used to
be known as food stamps.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
And I think that's kind of mind blowing.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
And I think the thing that I hear from talking
to a lot of nonprofit leaders is a lot, if
not most of the people who are receiving these benefits
are do not meet your stereotype there, you know, the
people might like to think of lazy, you know, miscreants
with a lot of these people are working and they're
working full time jobs on they're working full time jobs
(04:02):
in Orlando and Central Florida. That just don't pay enough
to make ends meet. And that is part of why
Second Harvest. You met you guys probably, I think know
this Second Harvest is not just one of the largest
food banks in the region, it's one of the largest
food banks in the country. In fact, I looked at
the numbers this morning. I think four of the top
twenty largest food banks in America are in Florida.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
And that is.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
Because we are a stateful of people who can't make
ends me.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
And that goes right into the column you had about
Orlando wages as well, because those two situations really do
work hand in hand. I mean, you figure out a
full time job that pays your you know, your rent,
your power bill, maybe your phone bill, and your water bill,
but there's no money leftover food for you, so you
have to lean on assistance to feed your family. And
you're right, and I've always said you and I both
have said this, Scott. All it takes is one visit
(04:52):
to Second Harvest, and they do tours all the time.
You are more than welcome to go down and walk
around and see the facility and see exactly what the
these guys do. On top of feeding people, they also
train people who want to go around the culinary industry.
They have an entire school there that does it as well.
They are one of the best community partners Orlando has.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
They absolutely are.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
And and and one of the nice things is, I
think you all have heard it too, is I've just
had readers that are reaching out and say, what can
we do? You know, what can we do to make
a difference? And the nice thing is that you have
an organization with a with a website that's easy to remember,
feed Hope now dot org.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Uh, they're ready to go there their turnkey uh.
Speaker 5 (05:32):
And I think their stats inflation has hit them, but
forever you know, dollar you give them, they're able to
put four meals on the on on the plates. Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
And nobody else can do that.
Speaker 5 (05:41):
In fact, I called another nonprofit that helps homeless people
and I said, hey, I'm my inclination is to tell
people donate to Second Harvest. Do you think I should
do something else? And they said, no, Second Harvest they're
the ones that take care of this.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
And uh, and we can talk a little bit about
the wages too if you want.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
The reason why I would just real quick about Second Harvest,
I said this, I think earlier this week as well,
that it's not just Second Harvest like that. You know,
the facility that's in Pine Hills is the facility that is.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
The main facility.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Absolute.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
But the issue is is that Second Harvest also feeds
or provides for all the other food banks in Central Florida.
So even though you may go to a veto and
get food there, maybe out in Mount Dora, Leesburg or
maybe out at n Avalon Park and you're getting your food
assistants there, Well, I got a bed, I got great
news for you. A lot of that comes from Second Harvest,
the central hub. Yeah, they are feeds all the other
(06:29):
food banks. Yeah, so it's not just there, they also
spread that back throughout the central Florida area.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
The exact number is they are the ones that provide
food to eight hundred and seventy different food pantries and
nonprofits throughout seven counties in Central Florida. They're like the
clearing house, the Amazon granddaddy of all this stuff. And
one of the things Greg Hickerson, the line that I
put in my piece that I posted before he got
(06:56):
here that really sort of struck me was He's like,
you know, we are ready and it's great to have
so many people that are willing to help. And by
the way, Eric Gray of the Christian Service Center said,
you know, if people are looking at help, how about
employers step up.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
You know, if you know your employees are on food stamps.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
He was like, well, first of all, maybe you got
an issue to think about there. Your employees are on
food stamps. But if you know they are, maybe now
is the time to step up with a gift card.
But one of the things that Higgerson said this quote
that struck me. For every meal our charity, our charitable
food organizations are able to provide snap provides nine meals.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
So the point of being they're ramping up, they're going
to try to do what they can. But there's there's
no cobbling together band aid solutions for the federal government
shutting down a program that feeds I think it's three
million people in Central and Florida alone.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, I just move on to the wages, buddy,
because I know this is really almost systemic, moving down
the line to the second harvest issue in the food
bank issues.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
For sure, absolutely, and you guys are the first ones
to hear this.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
I didn't have a prolem in today's paper, because this
is a project I've been work working on for a while.
About twelve years ago, we did we crunched all the
numbers and found out that of the fifty largest metros
in America, Orlando ranked fiftieth, dead last for median wages.
And we just cranked them again, crunched them again, and
the new numbers are out and Orlando is now forty nine.
(08:19):
So I'm not sure that's yeah, I'm not sure that's
worth a round of applause. One of the most telling
things and all of these things, is that we are
now forty ninth. Would you like to guess who fiftieth
is of the largest cities in America?
Speaker 3 (08:34):
God, you're saying this like it's gonna hurt.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Well, I'm gonna say it makes You're gonna.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Go aha, Texas, it's a city.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
It's not a city.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Oh yeah, I thought you wanted to I'll go to
New York. Well nope, low ages, Oh Las Vegas, low wages. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
So yeah, if we moved up to forty ninth, who's
the fiftieth state?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Now, Well, we're I don't We're just cranking mat city cities.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Cities are the population count.
Speaker 5 (09:10):
So we take the top fifty cities and here's here's
a couple of stats for you. So basically, you have
two tourism economies that are in a battle for last place.
That's the only thing that changed is that one tourism
city went up and one went down. And this is
what happens when you build an economy on the backs of,
you know, people who cleaned hotel rooms and work janitor
ships and worse fat food.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I'll give you a couple of stats.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
We have in Central Florida Metro Orlando more than two
hundred thousand jobs in fast food and food prep alone.
That is enough people to fill the city. That's a
population the size of Fort Lauderdale that are all making
about thirteen or fourteen dollars an hour. And if you're
working fourteen dollars an hour, you're working fifteen, you're making
(09:52):
sixteen dollars an hour.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
You cannot make ends meet.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
I mean every study shows that you have to have,
like e make eighteen dollars just to like get the
base and a really crappy motel. The United Way says
a family of four two families have got to be
earning ninety thousand dollars just to do the basics, and
we were growing up. One hundred thousand dollars was a
big deal. One hundred thousand dollars is not a big deal.
Costs I've gone way up. And another stark stat one
(10:17):
out of every four jobs, one out of every four.
That's every kind of job you can think of in
Central Florida pay sixteen.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Dollars and seventy six cents an hour or less.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
Damn that's that's that's within three dollars of minimum wage.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
One out of every four jobs.
Speaker 5 (10:32):
So if you want to understand why people are working
this and still can't put you know, food on their table,
or maybe they're getting food on the table, but they're
not putting money in the bank. They're not ready to retire,
they're working into their seventies. You know, we've got this
sort of mythology that sort of tourism jobs are all
being held by college kids, teenagers or retirees.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
We're just trying to kill time. That is not who's
cleaning the hotel rooms on odd drive.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Hey, you know, Scott, we talked about this with the
fast food workers, with the when the minimum wage went up.
You know, people started saying, well, you know, these are
supposed to be part time jobs, supposed to be part
time jobs. And we're like, yes, you're right, there's supposed
to be part time jobs. These aren't supposed to be careers.
The problem is is now you see forty year olds
getting careers in that because there's really nothing else available,
or or they don't qualify or whatever. The jobs just
aren't there. Do not know, But I agree with you
(11:16):
before when it comes to the employers. I mean, if
you're an employer and you understand that, you know, somebody
in your office is working, you know, forty hours a
week and they still have to go to get food assistance,
maybe you need to reboot.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
Yeah, there was a there was another nonprofit it's called
Unite Against Poverty that changed name, used to be around
and I will never forget they ran a food bank
and one of the lines the former director said, he said,
I go out here.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
I want to invite the president.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
I want to invite the presidents of Universal and Disney
to our place, and I would like you to see
your employees arriving in your uniforms to my nonprofit.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
To try to get bread to feed their families.
Speaker 5 (11:54):
And he says, if you don't think that's a problem,
you know, then I guess we can discuss that.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
But right now, we're taking care of the problems that
you're creating.
Speaker 5 (12:03):
And I started to mention that, Jack, when you mentioned
the top fifty cities, I wanted to put in perspective.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
We are the twentieth largest metro. We talked about metro.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
You know, it's not just Orlando, it's Seminole, Osceola. We
are the twentieth largest metro with the forty ninth wages.
So to put that in comparison, we're a city the
size of Baltimore or Denver, but we have wages like Birmingham, Alabama.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
As a matter of fact, Birmingham.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
Alabama has median wages higher than Orlando, with a significantly
lower cost of living. We have wages that are higher
in Grand Rapids, Michigan with a lower cost of living.
This is why people are working full time. They can't
make ends meet. And we're talking about the low end
of the scale the scale, but the median wage here
is forty five thousand dollars. That means half of all
(12:47):
jobs are paying less than that. And what took me
a while. Is I've found someone who works. He's a
chef at an Epcot restaurant. You know, he makes about
forty six thousand dollars. You know, he handcrafts pasta at
the Italian restaurant out there to a risk and get
their picture taken with them.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
They love his meals.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
He drives a newber shift before every morning, and after
every day he does rides to Tampa and up to
Lake Mary. He says, you know, I make forty eight
thousand dollars. That's not enough to pay my mortgage. You know,
the average mortgage in Central Florida right now is twenty
seven hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Twenty seven hundred dollars. Do the math on that.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
That's thirty three grand you have to spend on a mortgage.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Forget bills, for get food, forget vacations, forget savings, account insurance.
The math just doesn't add up to sustainability.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
And as I think, you know, I'm awfully preachy because
I really just think all economic issues from stem from this.
My argument has never been about higher minimum wages. I'm
not out there saying let's have thirty dollars minimum wages.
I'm asking the question of why does our community focus
so obsessively on growing these low wage jobs at the expense.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Of everything else.
Speaker 5 (13:53):
We see cities like Austin that focused on technology, and
those are eighty one hundred thousand dollars a year jobs.
He's like Charlotte that focused on finance with their ninety
thousand dollars a job. We add some of those kind
of things, But for every one job we had in
software development, we're adding three more jobs.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
And fast food and scott you know, you know again
when you when you consider the numbers, I did not
know those numbers.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Those stats are absolutely stultifying.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
You know.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
You know another thing too, and again you know, if
you own a business, you can do what you want right,
you certainly can. But man, you know, every time the
park trains those prices, you know, every time you pay
forty five dollars to park out there or whatever you wonder.
You know, we understand operating costs is expensive, but is
it is it that much more? I mean, when you're
jacking the price one hundred and fifty dollars a day
or whatever, that's not spread around this that that that
(14:39):
money doesn't go to the people who create those moments
for people who always to go to.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Know Jim, that is one of the things the cook
I talked to about. And he did not complain.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
He did not come to me. I went and found him.
But I went and looked at the menu prices. You know,
the chicken palm is thirty eight bucks. Yeah, the large
pizza starts at forty two dollars at this restaurant. And
one of the lines he said was I love making magic.
I mean, he bues into the Disney thing. I love
making magic, but magic don't pay his mortgage.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Yeah, yeah, you know, and I think that, you know,
I you know, there is a large portion of people
who work at theme parks who do that, I mean
move here from other parts of the country because they
want that experience. They want to be part of that
magical experience. They just love the genre of it all.
And then of course they have you know, they get
caught up in it. They have to wind up, you know,
either switching jobs. We know a number of people who
worked at theme parks went to move on because you
(15:26):
just didn't pay what they wanted it to pay. They
loved the time, but it doesn't really support a family.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
And there are some people who will say, well, you know,
if they're not happy with their job, they don't like
what they're making, they should get another job or get
a degree, and to which I say, well that you're
you're maybe right, but you don't understand how our economy works.
Because even if every single one of those people got
a degree in rocket scientists and went to work for NASA,
Orlando still has one hundred and thirty thousand hotel rooms
(15:54):
that have to be cleaned and checked in, that have
the janitors and securities that our economy is built to
work on these low wage salaries, and I think we
should work harder to bring in the higher wage than
to keep growing the lower wage.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Yeah, good calum today, buddy, great read. By the way,
if you want to check it out, is it at
the Centinel dot Commerce? It on your Facebook page?
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Where? Where?
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Should where should people get to check it out?
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Or land docentle dot com is always good. Thanks.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
So we got the Snap, We got the ways you
can help for snap benefit.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Excuse me for second harvest up there now?
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Yeah, very good, you guys, give it up. Good line
for Scott Maxwell. Yeah got always good seeing you buddy.
Enjoy your reward. Congratulations you deserve it. I'm sure whatever
you did, you deserve it.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Talk to you.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Thanks, all right, all.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
Right for us seven nine one six four one textas
seven seven zero three one dollar is your four o'clock keyword,
It's d O L L A R. Slide over to
Real Radio dot FM and send that away for your
chance of one thousand bucks.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Don't forget.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
At five twenty today we will interview Toto singer Joe Williams.
Very interesting cat. When I tell you about this guy's.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Hair, did you're gonna lose your mind? Back in a second.
With more than Jim Colbert Show
You know that thing with the last square toilet paper,
the last grain.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Of kitty litter.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
We used to have the kitchen garbage in the dorm
at school, and you would stack that garbage can There
be a mountain there, and everybody would just keep stacking
on the mountain, and whoever knocked the mountain over had.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
To take the garbage out. You'd write out of a
Simpsons episode. I got a ups package due today.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I don't think it's coming out.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Oh man, too soon.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
They found everybody yet. Savage dollar is your fork? Lucky
word d O L L A R. Slide over to
a real radio out of Fiminton. That away for your
chance in one thousand bucks. Dollar is the word. Guys,
go get that money.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I'm Jim.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
There's dead Jack's here as well, Hight. Every single Wednesday
around this time, our friend Scott Mexwell joins us from
the Orlando Sentinel. He writes columns over there Wednesday, Thursdays
and Sundays.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
He's sweet Heat. They call him the truth Dragon.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Loud for mister Scott Maxwell.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Look at this guy. Look at this guy.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
You got a little extra cup at your step today?
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Yeah, do you have a talk this morning or something
with your college shirt.
Speaker 5 (01:12):
Oh uh no, I would ad ditched that a long
time ago. No, as soon as I hang up with you, guys,
I got an event.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
I'm going to Yeah, what are you doing today? Is
that something you can talk about? Or no?
Speaker 5 (01:22):
Yeah, actually it's gonna sound like a humble brag now,
but I was you.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
This was not planned. Going to the Victims Service Center
is giving me an award?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Oh nice, yay, look at you worked with.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
Them for a long time. It's a great organization they are.
They basically were an offshoot of a county. But basically,
when people get mugged, when they get raped, when they
get all these things, you know, the cops they focus
on the bad guys, which is well they should, but
there's really no part of our society that focuses on
the victims. And there are people who don't know where
to begin picking up the pieces of their lives.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
So they do a great job.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
You know. The thing is, you know you're right.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
That is such a great topic, by the way, because
it's never spoken about the trauma, the emotional trauma that
happens when you're robbed or when something like that happens,
not even when it's a violent crime, like you just
feel you know, people just feel unsafe for a long
period of time. It's hard to deal with emotionally.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Sometimes.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, absolutely, it could be.
Speaker 5 (02:18):
It could be getting a purse snatched, but to what
you're talking about, even like more invasive if your home
gets broken into, there are people, especially if you live alone,
that have trouble getting over that starting to sleep again.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
And that's why people don't even know where to start.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
And these folks have social workers who are by the way,
some of the most underpaid people in all of society
because they have to go through like six years of
higher ed to make twenty.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Five thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
But they got all these social workers and they'll help
and I mean sometimes it's like we're gonna help you
get your bank records back and get and sometimes it's
going to talk through your trauma. So yeah, like I said,
they're the only ones that really sort of focus on
the victim part of crime.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Scott Maxwell joining us from the New Orlando Sentinel. Like
I said earlier Wednesday, Thursdays and Sundays, you can read
his column. Doing a lot of reporting here in Central Florida.
I noticed that you were talking to a good friend
of all of ours, Greg Higgerson, about what's happening with
SNAP benefits and where people can go, Like it's dominated
a lot of the local news cycle, just you know,
basically people printing where you may be able to grab
(03:17):
a meal or you know, get on a plan or something.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
What did you guys talk about today? What's going on?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, it's a lot of the same things.
Speaker 5 (03:24):
And I think the number that you I think you've
mentioned it before and you and I were sharing in
a text that kind of blows a lot of people's
minds is that one in eight floridiums one in eight
is on the SNAP the supplemental the what used to
be known as food stamps.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
And I think that's kind of mind blowing.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
And I think the thing that I hear from talking
to a lot of nonprofit leaders is a lot, if
not most of the people who are receiving these benefits
are do not meet your stereotype there, you know, the
people might like to think of lazy, you know, miscreants
with a lot of these people are working and they're
working full time jobs on they're working full time jobs
(04:02):
in Orlando and Central Florida. That just don't pay enough
to make ends meet. And that is part of why
Second Harvest. You met you guys probably, I think know
this Second Harvest is not just one of the largest
food banks in the region, it's one of the largest
food banks in the country. In fact, I looked at
the numbers this morning. I think four of the top
twenty largest food banks in America are in Florida.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
And that is.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
Because we are a stateful of people who can't make
ends me.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
And that goes right into the column you had about
Orlando wages as well, because those two situations really do
work hand in hand. I mean, you figure out a
full time job that pays your you know, your rent,
your power bill, maybe your phone bill, and your water bill,
but there's no money leftover food for you, so you
have to lean on assistance to feed your family. And
you're right, and I've always said you and I both
have said this, Scott. All it takes is one visit
(04:52):
to Second Harvest, and they do tours all the time.
You are more than welcome to go down and walk
around and see the facility and see exactly what the
these guys do. On top of feeding people, they also
train people who want to go around the culinary industry.
They have an entire school there that does it as well.
They are one of the best community partners Orlando has.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
They absolutely are.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
And and and one of the nice things is, I
think you all have heard it too, is I've just
had readers that are reaching out and say, what can
we do? You know, what can we do to make
a difference? And the nice thing is that you have
an organization with a with a website that's easy to remember,
feed Hope now dot org.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Uh, they're ready to go there their turnkey uh.
Speaker 5 (05:32):
And I think their stats inflation has hit them, but
forever you know, dollar you give them, they're able to
put four meals on the on on the plates. Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
And nobody else can do that.
Speaker 5 (05:41):
In fact, I called another nonprofit that helps homeless people
and I said, hey, I'm my inclination is to tell
people donate to Second Harvest. Do you think I should
do something else? And they said, no, Second Harvest they're
the ones that take care of this.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
And uh, and we can talk a little bit about
the wages too if you want.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
The reason why I would just real quick about Second Harvest,
I said this, I think earlier this week as well,
that it's not just Second Harvest like that. You know,
the facility that's in Pine Hills is the facility that is.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
The main facility.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Absolute.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
But the issue is is that Second Harvest also feeds
or provides for all the other food banks in Central Florida.
So even though you may go to a veto and
get food there, maybe out in Mount Dora, Leesburg or
maybe out at n Avalon Park and you're getting your food
assistants there, Well, I got a bed, I got great
news for you. A lot of that comes from Second Harvest,
the central hub. Yeah, they are feeds all the other
(06:29):
food banks. Yeah, so it's not just there, they also
spread that back throughout the central Florida area.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
The exact number is they are the ones that provide
food to eight hundred and seventy different food pantries and
nonprofits throughout seven counties in Central Florida. They're like the
clearing house, the Amazon granddaddy of all this stuff. And
one of the things Greg Hickerson, the line that I
put in my piece that I posted before he got
(06:56):
here that really sort of struck me was He's like,
you know, we are ready and it's great to have
so many people that are willing to help. And by
the way, Eric Gray of the Christian Service Center said,
you know, if people are looking at help, how about
employers step up.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
You know, if you know your employees are on food stamps.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
He was like, well, first of all, maybe you got
an issue to think about there. Your employees are on
food stamps. But if you know they are, maybe now
is the time to step up with a gift card.
But one of the things that Higgerson said this quote
that struck me. For every meal our charity, our charitable
food organizations are able to provide snap provides nine meals.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
So the point of being they're ramping up, they're going
to try to do what they can. But there's there's
no cobbling together band aid solutions for the federal government
shutting down a program that feeds I think it's three
million people in Central and Florida alone.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, I just move on to the wages, buddy,
because I know this is really almost systemic, moving down
the line to the second harvest issue in the food
bank issues.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
For sure, absolutely, and you guys are the first ones
to hear this.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
I didn't have a prolem in today's paper, because this
is a project I've been work working on for a while.
About twelve years ago, we did we crunched all the
numbers and found out that of the fifty largest metros
in America, Orlando ranked fiftieth, dead last for median wages.
And we just cranked them again, crunched them again, and
the new numbers are out and Orlando is now forty nine.
(08:19):
So I'm not sure that's yeah, I'm not sure that's
worth a round of applause. One of the most telling
things and all of these things, is that we are
now forty ninth. Would you like to guess who fiftieth
is of the largest cities in America?
Speaker 3 (08:34):
God, you're saying this like it's gonna hurt.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Well, I'm gonna say it makes You're gonna.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Go aha, Texas, it's a city.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
It's not a city.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Oh yeah, I thought you wanted to I'll go to
New York. Well nope, low ages, Oh Las Vegas, low wages. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
So yeah, if we moved up to forty ninth, who's
the fiftieth state?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Now, Well, we're I don't We're just cranking mat city cities.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Cities are the population count.
Speaker 5 (09:10):
So we take the top fifty cities and here's here's
a couple of stats for you. So basically, you have
two tourism economies that are in a battle for last place.
That's the only thing that changed is that one tourism
city went up and one went down. And this is
what happens when you build an economy on the backs of,
you know, people who cleaned hotel rooms and work janitor
ships and worse fat food.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I'll give you a couple of stats.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
We have in Central Florida Metro Orlando more than two
hundred thousand jobs in fast food and food prep alone.
That is enough people to fill the city. That's a
population the size of Fort Lauderdale that are all making
about thirteen or fourteen dollars an hour. And if you're
working fourteen dollars an hour, you're working fifteen, you're making
(09:52):
sixteen dollars an hour.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
You cannot make ends meet.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
I mean every study shows that you have to have,
like e make eighteen dollars just to like get the
base and a really crappy motel. The United Way says
a family of four two families have got to be
earning ninety thousand dollars just to do the basics, and
we were growing up. One hundred thousand dollars was a
big deal. One hundred thousand dollars is not a big deal.
Costs I've gone way up. And another stark stat one
(10:17):
out of every four jobs, one out of every four.
That's every kind of job you can think of in
Central Florida pay sixteen.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Dollars and seventy six cents an hour or less.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
Damn that's that's that's within three dollars of minimum wage.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
One out of every four jobs.
Speaker 5 (10:32):
So if you want to understand why people are working
this and still can't put you know, food on their table,
or maybe they're getting food on the table, but they're
not putting money in the bank. They're not ready to retire,
they're working into their seventies. You know, we've got this
sort of mythology that sort of tourism jobs are all
being held by college kids, teenagers or retirees.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
We're just trying to kill time. That is not who's
cleaning the hotel rooms on odd drive.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Hey, you know, Scott, we talked about this with the
fast food workers, with the when the minimum wage went up.
You know, people started saying, well, you know, these are
supposed to be part time jobs, supposed to be part
time jobs. And we're like, yes, you're right, there's supposed
to be part time jobs. These aren't supposed to be careers.
The problem is is now you see forty year olds
getting careers in that because there's really nothing else available,
or or they don't qualify or whatever. The jobs just
aren't there. Do not know, But I agree with you
(11:16):
before when it comes to the employers. I mean, if
you're an employer and you understand that, you know, somebody
in your office is working, you know, forty hours a
week and they still have to go to get food assistance,
maybe you need to reboot.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
Yeah, there was a there was another nonprofit it's called
Unite Against Poverty that changed name, used to be around
and I will never forget they ran a food bank
and one of the lines the former director said, he said,
I go out here.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
I want to invite the president.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
I want to invite the presidents of Universal and Disney
to our place, and I would like you to see
your employees arriving in your uniforms to my nonprofit.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
To try to get bread to feed their families.
Speaker 5 (11:54):
And he says, if you don't think that's a problem,
you know, then I guess we can discuss that.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
But right now, we're taking care of the problems that
you're creating.
Speaker 5 (12:03):
And I started to mention that, Jack, when you mentioned
the top fifty cities, I wanted to put in perspective.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
We are the twentieth largest metro. We talked about metro.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
You know, it's not just Orlando, it's Seminole, Osceola. We
are the twentieth largest metro with the forty ninth wages.
So to put that in comparison, we're a city the
size of Baltimore or Denver, but we have wages like Birmingham, Alabama.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
As a matter of fact, Birmingham.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
Alabama has median wages higher than Orlando, with a significantly
lower cost of living. We have wages that are higher
in Grand Rapids, Michigan with a lower cost of living.
This is why people are working full time. They can't
make ends meet. And we're talking about the low end
of the scale the scale, but the median wage here
is forty five thousand dollars. That means half of all
(12:47):
jobs are paying less than that. And what took me
a while. Is I've found someone who works. He's a
chef at an Epcot restaurant. You know, he makes about
forty six thousand dollars. You know, he handcrafts pasta at
the Italian restaurant out there to a risk and get
their picture taken with them.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
They love his meals.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
He drives a newber shift before every morning, and after
every day he does rides to Tampa and up to
Lake Mary. He says, you know, I make forty eight
thousand dollars. That's not enough to pay my mortgage. You know,
the average mortgage in Central Florida right now is twenty
seven hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Twenty seven hundred dollars. Do the math on that.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
That's thirty three grand you have to spend on a mortgage.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Forget bills, for get food, forget vacations, forget savings, account insurance.
The math just doesn't add up to sustainability.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
And as I think, you know, I'm awfully preachy because
I really just think all economic issues from stem from this.
My argument has never been about higher minimum wages. I'm
not out there saying let's have thirty dollars minimum wages.
I'm asking the question of why does our community focus
so obsessively on growing these low wage jobs at the expense.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Of everything else.
Speaker 5 (13:53):
We see cities like Austin that focused on technology, and
those are eighty one hundred thousand dollars a year jobs.
He's like Charlotte that focused on finance with their ninety
thousand dollars a job. We add some of those kind
of things, But for every one job we had in
software development, we're adding three more jobs.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
And fast food and scott you know, you know again
when you when you consider the numbers, I did not
know those numbers.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Those stats are absolutely stultifying.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
You know.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
You know another thing too, and again you know, if
you own a business, you can do what you want right,
you certainly can. But man, you know, every time the
park trains those prices, you know, every time you pay
forty five dollars to park out there or whatever you wonder.
You know, we understand operating costs is expensive, but is
it is it that much more? I mean, when you're
jacking the price one hundred and fifty dollars a day
or whatever, that's not spread around this that that that
(14:39):
money doesn't go to the people who create those moments
for people who always to go to.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Know Jim, that is one of the things the cook
I talked to about. And he did not complain.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
He did not come to me. I went and found him.
But I went and looked at the menu prices. You know,
the chicken palm is thirty eight bucks. Yeah, the large
pizza starts at forty two dollars at this restaurant. And
one of the lines he said was I love making magic.
I mean, he bues into the Disney thing. I love
making magic, but magic don't pay his mortgage.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Yeah, yeah, you know, and I think that, you know,
I you know, there is a large portion of people
who work at theme parks who do that, I mean
move here from other parts of the country because they
want that experience. They want to be part of that
magical experience. They just love the genre of it all.
And then of course they have you know, they get
caught up in it. They have to wind up, you know,
either switching jobs. We know a number of people who
worked at theme parks went to move on because you
(15:26):
just didn't pay what they wanted it to pay. They
loved the time, but it doesn't really support a family.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
And there are some people who will say, well, you know,
if they're not happy with their job, they don't like
what they're making, they should get another job or get
a degree, and to which I say, well that you're
you're maybe right, but you don't understand how our economy works.
Because even if every single one of those people got
a degree in rocket scientists and went to work for NASA,
Orlando still has one hundred and thirty thousand hotel rooms
(15:54):
that have to be cleaned and checked in, that have
the janitors and securities that our economy is built to
work on these low wage salaries, and I think we
should work harder to bring in the higher wage than
to keep growing the lower wage.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Yeah, good calum today, buddy, great read. By the way,
if you want to check it out, is it at
the Centinel dot Commerce? It on your Facebook page?
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Where? Where?
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Should where should people get to check it out?
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Or land docentle dot com is always good. Thanks.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
So we got the Snap, We got the ways you
can help for snap benefit.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Excuse me for second harvest up there now?
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Yeah, very good, you guys, give it up. Good line
for Scott Maxwell. Yeah got always good seeing you buddy.
Enjoy your reward. Congratulations you deserve it. I'm sure whatever
you did, you deserve it.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Talk to you.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Thanks, all right, all.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
Right for us seven nine one six four one textas
seven seven zero three one dollar is your four o'clock keyword,
It's d O L L A R. Slide over to
Real Radio dot FM and send that away for your
chance of one thousand bucks.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Don't forget.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
At five twenty today we will interview Toto singer Joe Williams.
Very interesting cat. When I tell you about this guy's.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Hair, did you're gonna lose your mind? Back in a second.
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