Farm Share Incorporated announced a record-breaking year of recovering and distributing 32,804,399 pounds of food and serving more than 4,000,000 households across the state of Florida.
Miami Lakes town officials, County Commissioner Esteban Bovo Jr., State Representatives Manny Diaz Jr., Jose Oliva, Frank Artiles and Byran Avila, and State Senator Rene Garcia, all played a big part of the organization’s success from July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015, by hosting a Farm Share food distribution event in May at the Miami-Dade Northwest District police station in Miami Lakes.
Artiles has been setting up Farm Share events throughout the state of Florida as well.
The elected officials and 100 volunteers distributed food and other goods to more than 500 families thanks to the coordinated effort by those who wanted to feed hungry families.
Diaz directed traffic, while passing out corn and tomatoes and greeted many of the families that were waiting in line.
"Farm Share does a wonderful job with these food distribution events," Diaz said at the event. "This means a lot to the families in our community."
Garcia was also on hand to pass out food, as his volunteering work to feed needy families reflected one of his goals as a state senator, as well as Avila, who ordered pizza for all the volunteers.
Town Councilmember Frank Mingo was also unloading boxes of fresh food and fresh corn. “This is a great for the Town of Miami Lakes,” Mingo said. “It’s great to see everyone pull together to help out our residents.”
Farm Share has been feeding hungry families and preventing millions of pounds of food from going to waste since 1991. Farm Share is the only major food bank in Florida that does not charge the agency network consisting of church food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, senior centers, and community centers for any of the food provided. All of the recovered food, including an abundant supply of fresh vegetables, is distributed to the community free of charge.
The food distribution in Miami Lakes was put together with the help of the Florida Department of Children and Families and Oliva.
For more information about Farm Share or to donate, visit: www.farmshare.org or contact Kristen King Jaiven at 305.246.3276 or by email to kristen@farmshare.org.