Miami Proud On The Frontline: David Cardenas Coordinates Food Distributions for Miami-Dade Parks
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - This week in our Miami Proud profile we continue to share stories of people whose work has been vital during the coronavirus pandemic.
With so many people faced with sudden unemployment, several organizations have stepped up to provide much-needed donations of food. Miami-Dade County Parks Department has accomplished dozens of these distributions.
David Cardenas has led this effort. He describes this experience, in his own words.
"I'm David Cardenas, I work for the aesthetics division of the park department. I oversee over 208 parks, their landscape maintenance, and the communities and neighborhood parks.
Just recently, after the coronavirus, I've taken on the role of food distribution coordinator for the Miami-Dade parks department. I come here and I stand here with this group of individuals from our county that are here to provide this support.
I love it. My days have turned into 12 – 14 hour days and I can't wait to get back to work in the morning and get on the phone and start making all the calls and communicate to all the entities to involved in making this happen.
This is a community that I hold dear to my heart. Our parks system has become the perfect venue for these kinds of events you can actually bring hundreds of people at one given time.
It's just heartbreaking when you come by at five in the morning and you see a line of 600 to 700 cars already queued up to get into the park to get some supplies. That alone is heartbreaking to me because there's just so many in need in this community. You see it in their faces as they drive by that, wow, this is really our county coming together to help.
There is the gratification that I seem to feel when I finish the day, that I know that I've helped feed 15000 families since I've started this program. That alone, in and of itself, is amazing."