ORLANDO, Fla. — After a fire at the men’s shelter of the Coalition for The Homeless on Wednesday, several agencies are continuing to step up to fill a need.

What You Need To Know

  • Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida will be cooking up lunch and dinner for the hundreds affected by the fire at the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida for as long as needed

  • The three main agencies providing temporary shelter for these men include Shiloh Baptist Church, the Orlando Union Rescue Mission and The Salvation Army

  • Chef Israel Santiago who has been at Second Harvest Food Bank for 11 years, says its part of their mission to step up and help

That fire, and the water damage it left behind, displaced 237 men experiencing homelessness that were staying there.

The damage that building sustained means it’ll be uninhabitable for at least 10 days.

Second Harvest Food Bank will be cooking up lunch and dinner for the hundreds affected by the fire for as long as needed.

“When our partners in the community call for help, or there’s a need, we have to say yes,” said Chef Israel Santiago, who has been at Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, the community’s emergency food supply, for 11 years.

His culinary team jumped into action, mixing in those secret sauces before sending food to the hundreds affected by the fire at the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida on Wednesday.

One of the menu items on Friday included fajitas and saffron rice.

“What we’re trying to do is make sure it’s nice and fluffy and beautiful,” he said. “It’s important that when you’re going through issues in life, that you get fed.”

During that fire, the kitchen for the coalition was heavily damaged. The fire erupting in one of their men’s dorms, directly over the kitchen. The 237 men are now dispersed in temporary shelters across Orlando.

“We’re no strangers to disaster relief,” said Erika Spence, Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.

She said they’ll keep cooking up lunch and dinner, delivering food for as long as the coalition needs it.

“When we got the call about the fire, our hearts went out to the staff and residents obviously, and we immediately said, ‘How can we help?’ Days like this is when the community part of that kitchen comes to life, the chefs are pouring in all the love,” said Spence.

While reflecting on the impact his work and his team have done, Chef Santiago says they’ll always show up for others on a rainy day.

“It was devastating for me. We recently had the situation in Osceola where the building was on fire also for another nonprofit as well — Salvation Army — now it happened again here, so we want to step up and help out as much as we can,” he said.

For the next several days, the three main agencies providing that temporary shelter include Shiloh Baptist Church, the Orlando Union Rescue Mission and The Salvation Army.