Volunteer food drive in Lake City helps feed 400 families

LAKE CITY, Fla. — The Lake City Police Department and Farm Share partnered together to lead a successful volunteer-driven food drive.

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The event to help those with food insecurity happened on Sat., Jan. 13. A total of 400 families received 32,532 pounds of food items including; cereal, apple juice, chicken, canned peas, rice, veggie rice, crackers, almond milk, lemonade, yogurt, graham crackers, vegan cheese, potatoes, and coffee creamer.

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“I am impressed with the collaboration between our Community Relations Coordinator, Ashley Hardison, and lead volunteers,” Police Chief Gerald Butler said. “Their combined determination, communication, and planning enable us to reduce the time this event takes. I am once again saying we finished in record time having all the food items distributed in less than two hours.”

To successfully pull off the food drive, volunteers needed to unload delivery trucks, unpack and then bag food items, and organize the food for distribution.

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The police department thanked volunteers from Christ Central, Olivet Missionary Baptist Church, Allen-Chapel AME, Souls Harbor, The Young Women of Excellence, CPA Alumni, and the Police Explorers. They also said they appreciated Vann Carpet One for providing a forklift and Huddle House for keeping the volunteers fueled up with coffee and sausage biscuits.

Farm Share is described as Florida’s homegrown food bank, established in 1991 by and for Floridians.

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“Their innovative approach involves recovering crops from local farmers to provide fresh and nutritious food to those facing food insecurity,” LCPD said in a statement about Farm Share.

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