By: Emily Grant, Director of Operations
Amanda Chidzikwe, CEO & Founder of She-Lion Foundation
From the streets of Zimbabwe to the neighborhoods of Orlando, the journey has been one of faith, fire, and an unshakable vision of bringing a global heart and local impact to our work. Through the Free Food Friday Program, we have turned pain into purpose, using food as a tool not just for nourishment, but for connection, dignity, and community empowerment. What began as a dream is now a weekly mission to serve, uplift, and show young women and youths the power of giving back.
She-Lion Foundation: We are committed to empowering young women through education, mentorship, vocational training, and financial literacy. Our mission is simple yet powerful: to break barriers, foster independence, and create lasting positive change in our community.
1. We're curious - how has the food from our program been helping you feed your community? Any pleasant surprises along the way?
Honestly, we are very grateful for this program and the donations you’ve provided. When we started our Friday food program, it helped us build rapport and trust with the community. [As you know] we focus on women empowerment and mentorship, and the moment when we introduced this food program, the community trusted us more.
Things are hard in 2025. Our program started with a focus on young women and children, especially single mothers, but now our numbers have doubled and we see families. We have a lot more people requesting food on Fridays. This last week, one of my volunteers, who is a mother who lost her job in January, said how much she looks forward to Fridays. We now have doubled the boxes so she can receive more.
This program is also good for our mentors – it’s a way for them to give back to the community too.
2. What donated goodies seem to bring the biggest smiles to people's faces? Any unexpected favorites?
Here is a funny story: in the beginning we didn’t unbox the donations from the schools, so some families would get a lot of milk or juice and others would get pizza and bread. Some would complain that they wanted the pizza and bread too. So now we open boxes and separate the food, so that each box includes all the items – it’s a mixed box with fruit, milk, pizza and bread.
I have to say they really like the pizza because it feels like a meal. We also noticed the seniors like the sweets – they really like desserts and will ask if we are bringing any! The kids love the chocolate milk, and the mothers love the regular milk.
3. If you could wave a magic wand and get more of one type of donation, what would it be? What would make the biggest difference for your folks?
More pizzas and pies! We would love to have more complete meals because this is something a family can have the day. We would also love more protein – like chicken and beans.
4. Mind sharing a heartwarming moment you've witnessed thanks to these donations? We love hearing the real stories behind the meals!
This food program helps us connect with underserved communities in Orange County. There is a [housing] complex we would go to and usually people would wait until we were all set up, but there was this mother who would help us unload the car, set up and throw the boxes away. She shared that she didn’t have work, so we invited her to start volunteering with us and she did! She shared that she was having trouble with housing, so we worked with Orange County to help her find housing. She now has a job and her kids are enrolled in our program. If we didn’t have this food program, we wouldn’t know how to help this woman.
We also now have a lot of students from that housing complex enrolled – all because of the food program. That is thanks to you all. We appreciate you.
Oh and another thing: when we post pictures on social media – we started getting attention from another organization called Your Name in Lights, and now they come on Fridays to our feeding program and bring clothes or shoes to donate.
Anything else you would like to share?
Let us know if there are any donations this summer!
Interested in sharing your partnership story or being featured by FoodRecovery.org? Reach out at hello@foodrecovery.org!