A Mount Dora third-grade teacher's Amazon wish list has grown into a food-relief network spanning dozens of Central Florida schools, feeding students every day of the week, including weekends, holidays and summer break. Meagan Dewitz launched the effort, called Squirrel Around the World, in August 2025 after watching her school's existing food program struggle to keep pace with need. It has since expanded from serving a single school to helping 77 schools and organizations across the region.
Dewitz is a full-time teacher and mother of two who works at a Title I school where most students come from low-income households, according to WKMG. She began by sharing an Amazon wish list on social media and asking people to donate non-perishable food, and donations have since poured in from across the United States and around the world, the station reports. The food Squirrel Around the World distributes requires no refrigeration, stove or kitchen to prepare, since some of the families it serves experience homelessness or are living in cars and hotels.
The project's reach exploded after a celebrity boost. In December 2025, Paris Hilton purchased every item on Dewitz's classroom wish list and posted about it on social media, a moment that Real Radio 104.1 says triggered a wave of nationwide donations. The following month, Dewitz appeared alongside Hilton on The Kelly Clarkson Show to discuss classroom food insecurity, telling the program her initiative was already supporting more than 30 regional schools at the time.
A School Built on Need
Dewitz's project grew out of conditions at Triangle Elementary School in Mount Dora, where roughly 55% of the 695 enrolled students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, per SchoolDigger data. That figure stands in sharp contrast to nearby Round Lake Charter School, where the free or reduced lunch rate sits at 29% among its 1,240 students, the same data shows, illustrating how unevenly economic hardship is distributed even within a single city.
Food insecurity is a broader regional concern. Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida's 2026 Map the Meal Gap study found the crisis extends further still, with 178,020 children, or roughly 1 in 5, facing food insecurity across its seven-county service region.
Teachers Lean on the Support
For educators on the ground, the daily reassurance matters as much as the food itself. Sabrina Hutchinson, a third-grade teacher at Seminole Springs Elementary, said Squirrel Around the World's work gives teachers peace of mind, according to the WKMG report. Hutchinson said teachers know their children are going home, getting dinner and being supported.
The work also involves constant strain behind the scenes. The organization faces constant demand for food and its shelves sometimes run nearly empty before donations arrive to refill them, the station notes.
Operating Alongside Established Food Networks
Squirrel Around the World is not the only safety net operating in Lake County. Lake Cares Food Pantry served 74,998 individuals and 20,792 families in 2025, distributing roughly 25,000 pounds of groceries each week in partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. Mount Dora recently expanded that infrastructure further, opening the Nathaniel Bell Community Center with on-site food distribution through Lake Cares.
Second Harvest also runs its own formal School Partnerships Program, placing free, student-led food pantries in schools that distribute non-perishable food without requiring income verification, according to the Center for Nutrition & Health Impact. That program has distributed more than one million meals across Central Florida since 2017, operating as an institutional counterpart to grassroots efforts like Dewitz's.
Families served under both formal and informal programs may also qualify for additional protections. Under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, Lake County Schools must provide immediate enrollment, transportation and educational support to students lacking fixed, regular and adequate nighttime housing, services the district administers through its Families In Transition program.
What Comes Next
Dewitz has said she plans to expand Squirrel Around the World beyond Central Florida and eventually help children in communities around the world. The organization currently needs warehouse space to sustain its growth, and shares updates through Facebook, TikTok and its Amazon wish list.
The group's administrative footprint remains modest for now. Squirrel Around the World maintains a PO Box in Mount Dora and carries a C rating from the Better Business Bureau, a grade the organization attributes to its short operating history and an unaddressed customer inquiry. How the project transitions from viral wish-list donations into lasting nonprofit infrastructure remains an open question as demand continues to outpace supply.
