Hispanic Heritage Month: Local Mexican American making sure every family has food on the table
MIAMI - CBS News Miami is celebrating Hispanic Heritage over the next month, with stories spotlighting people who are helping their community while honoring their own rich culture.
September also happens to be "Hunger Action Month"... And one local Mexican American is doing his part to make sure every family has food on the table.
Paco Velez lives a life of service.
He's worked at food banks for more than 20 years and currently serves as the President and CEO of Feeding South Florida.
"Everything happens at the dinner table. For many of our families, those ingredients that bring people together at the dinner table are missing. That's what we as an organization provide," Velez said.
Velez himself is a mix of "special ingredients".
Born to a Native American father and a Mexican-American mother in Waco, Texas, he grew up in the small border town of Eagle Pass.
"Being Mexican American or being of Hispanic culture, for me helped me especially when I left Eagle Pass," he said. "It helped me embrace my Mexican culture even more, because I started missing that culture. I started missing the food. Started missing the people. Missing everything that made my parents, my grandparents and myself Mexican."
He admits moving to South Florida was a big change for him.
"There's not a lot of Mexican individuals in the state of Florida compared to other nationalities from around the world, especially Central, South America and the Caribbean. Not a lot of places where I can go and share in the food culture, the music culture, share in the overall culture of being Mexican," Velez explained. "Not everybody wants black beans. I want pinto beans. Not everybody wants certain kinds of food. They want specific food that's going to make them feel like they're at home with family like they're at home. That's what growing up in a small Texas town on the border being Mexican and Hispanic made me realize, that everybody has their own culture and we want to help provide a piece of that culture through food for families."
But for many in our community, food insecurity is real.
South Florida is home to one of the largest concentrations of Latinos in the country.
According to UnidosUS.org, more than one in five SNAP participants are Latino and Latinos also make up more than 40% of WIC participants.
"Unfortunately for so many families, it's unaffordable. The paradise, the hospitality. It's unattainable for so many. For those individuals who help put food on the table for others-- farmworkers, servers, people that work at groceries stores-- they help families put food on the table, but they themselves struggle to put food on their own table. That's unfortunate. That's not right, that's not just," Velez said.
That's why Velez works every day in an effort to end hunger in South Florida, making an impact, one meal at a time.
"'Thank you.' 'Que Dios te bendiga.' These are the things we hear on a regular basis from families we serve," he said.
Feeding South Florida relies on donations and volunteers to fulfill its mission.
Click here for more information.