This past Saturday morning we piloted our Produce to the People program at Victory World Outreach in Maitland. The goal of Produce to the People is to deliver a truckload of produce directly to a community site where it will be handed our immediately by a team of volunteers from one of our partner feeding agencies. We wanted to focus on fresh produce for this program because that can be the most difficult for our clients to have access to on a limited budget.
For our pilot, we delivered two palates of cucumbers, two palates or corn, four palates of grapefruit juice, two palates of Grocery Alliance items, and two palates of apple slices. It was a chilly morning, but Victory World Outreach estimates that they served a little over 200 people.
Volunteers were the key to success. There were at least 16 volunteer on hand. They had an assembly line set up that would make Henry Ford proud. In addition to handing out food, volunteers would help people to their cars, talk to people in the waiting line, and direct traffic.
Thanks to everyone who helped organize this event. Big thanks to Victory World Outreach. They went way above and beyond in organizing the distribution. This Saturday we’re in Kissimmee to try it all over again with some changes here and there.
We’ll be testing out this program two more times this month in Kissimmee and East Orange County. We’ll let you know how it goes!
Upcoming Produce to the People Pilots
October 24th
8:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.
Solid Rock
Church of God
1904 North Michigan Ave.
Kissimmee, Florida 34774
October 31st
8:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.
New Covenant Church of Central Florida
990 Belvedere Road
Orlando, Florida 32820
Below are some photos from the event:
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Tags: bank, central, church, covenant, florida, food, fruit, god, outreach, produce, victory, world
October 19th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Food Bank of CFL and Bess Auer, Bess Auer. Bess Auer said: 2harvestCFL Produce to the People: http://bit.ly/4lvnk4 Our Pilot Program that helps get fresh produce out to the Central Florida Community [...]
October 20th, 2009 at 7:34 am
What a great program!
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:02 am
I agree with the comment above – great program!
And hey, I think stories like the one below might help inspire others to donate, volunteer, or otherwise get involved.
Vivienne told us her story a while back, about working at a food bank in Reno. She ended up in a conversation w/ a woman there, and realized how similar they were in so many ways.
I hope you find it as inspirational as I do. Thanks for reading.
http://www.ahamoment.com/vote/vivienne