ORLANDO, Fla. — For most people, weekends mean chores and some rest and relaxation. If you’re like Everyday Hero Ivanhoe Alvarez, it means giving your free time to make someone else’s life better. 

He’s a property investor who is investing in the community in a different way.

“I have a brother that fell victim of drug use and became homeless for a very long time. It was hard for us to find him and interact with him,” said Alvarez, who volunteers at Second Harvest Food Bank.

That’s what, he said, opened his eyes to the terrible things that happen to people on the street and sparked the mission to volunteer.

Alvarez often takes his wife, Paola, and their very young child. That, too, has a special meaning to the Alvarez family.

“I just want to make sure that my kids from the very beginning, understand that this (volunteer service) will be a part of their life forever,” Ivanhoe said. 

His wife echoed that.

“I just want to make sure that my kids from the very beginning, understand that this will be a part of their life forever,” Paola said.

Based on a 2022 analysis from Feeding America, one in eight Central Floridians, including one in five children, were at risk of having hunger at some point in a year’s period. The analysis studied data from 2020, the most recent available.

Efforts from Alvarez are making that situation better.