400 Families served at Farm Share in Lake City

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Lake City, Fla., – Earlier this month, the Lake City Police Department partnered with Farm Share to support 400 families through a volunteer-driven initiative.

The success of this impactful event is attributed to the generosity of volunteers from Christ Central, Olivet Missionary Baptist Church, Allen-Chapel AME, Souls Harbor, The Young Women of Excellence, CPA Alumni, and the Police Explorers. Their dedicated contributions highlight the community’s commitment to making a difference.

“I am impressed with the collaboration between our Community Relations Coordinator, Ashley Hardison, and lead volunteers,” said Police Chief Gerald Butler. “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.”

The logistical process includes unloading the delivery truck, unpacking, bagging, and organizing for distribution, taking approximately three hours. Once the distribution line opens, it takes two to three hours to pass out food items. The items or amount being delivered are unknown until the truck is received on event day. For this event, we received 32,532 pounds of food items which included: cereal, apple juice, chicken, canned peas, rice, veggie rice, crackers, almond milk, lemonade, yogurt, graham crackers, vegan cheese, potatoes, and coffee creamer.

Farm Share, as highlighted on www.farmshare.org, is Florida’s homegrown food bank, established in 1991 by and for Floridians. Their innovative approach involves recovering crops from local farmers to provide fresh and nutritious food to those facing food insecurity.
The department extends appreciation to Vann Carpet One for providing a forklift and Huddle House for fueling volunteers with sausage biscuits and coffee.

For further insights into the Lake City Police Department’s community initiatives, visit www.lcfla.com/police.