Farm Share nearing end of food distributions for the year as need grows
MIAMI - Farm Share is wrapping up its distributions for the year and the lines seem to be getting longer, the food going quicker.
On Wednesday, they did a distribution at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex and within about an hour what they had brought was gone.
Jaboria Brown-Gerald's said her son started Fathers Uplifting Kids, a non-profit. She and her husband helped out during the food distribution which was a partnership between Farm Share and the City of Miami.
"We have fed, I think I'm pretty close, since the pandemic, 200 and something thousand, pretty close to 300,000 and this the last one of the year," she said.
Brown-Gerald said when her son Anthony was 15 years old, he saw a man in need outside an International House of Pancakes restaurant.
"He was asking the people 'I don't want no money, I just want something to eat'. So the people was looking at him like, you know, looking down on the homeless man. So my son said 'Ma, when we go and order our food can we order something for him to eat?' I said sure, no problem," she recalled.
Said said the man was so grateful.
"So the homeless man was like where are your parents? He said my mom is right there in the window, trust me she's not too far, and my dad is right there at the door. He said whatever your parents are doing, however they are raising you, tell them thank God," said Brown-Gerald.
From that day on, she said Anthony realized he wanted to share his dad to make sure everyone, especially young people like him, felt that someone was watching their back. So he and the family created Fathers Uplifting Kids in 2018.
"Each area we go to it's new faces, some people, they follow everywhere we go," said Brown-Gerald
Based on the 2022 U.S. Census Bureau survey, 20 percent of those who live in Miami are at the poverty level. That is well above the state total of 12 percent. That is why community groups say help is needed more than ever.
"I'm hoping that it gets better but I don't think it's getting better because the cost of living is going up," said Brown-Gerald.
Farm Share will hold its last food distribution for the year on Thursday at Pelican Park in Sunny Isles.
