In an effort to continue to provide a food to the Big Bend’s most vulnerable citizens impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Second Harvest of the Big Bend is doing Mega-Mobile food distributions in five Big Bend counties from April 14-18.
The distributions will be conducted via a drive-through operation.
The food bank says attendees should stay in their cars and follow signs and traffic flow as directed to the distribution point, where volunteers and Second Harvest staff, following strict sanitation and social distancing protocols, will load food into cars. Food will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.
A list of Second Harvest's upcoming food distributions is below:
April 14-18 Mobile Food Distribution Schedule:
Distribution Date/Time: Location:
April 14 - 10 a.m. Oak Ridge Elementary School -- 4530 Shelfer Road, Tallahassee
April 14 - 9 a.m. Veterans Civic Center -- 10405 NW CO Jacob's Way, Bristol
April 15 - 11 a.m. Holy Community Church -- 24450 Blue Star Highway, Quincy
April 15 – 11 a.m. TCC – 444 Appleyard Drive, Tallahassee
April 16 - 9 a.m. Altha Town Hall -- 25586, Main Street, Altha
April 17 - 10 a.m. Tabernacle of Praise -- 170 Geddie Road, Tallahassee
April 17 - 11 a.m. Eastpoint First Baptist Church -- 447 Avenue A, Eastpoint
April 18 - 9 a.m. New Testament Christian Center -- 2558 East Hwy. 90, Madison
"So what we recognize is a need for us to be inside of the communities, providing these direct distributions so that we can supplement with a lot of our food pantries," said Monique Ellsworth, Second Harvest of the Big Bend, CEO. "And our partner agencies are working to do to meet the needs of the community as well."
To meet this need, they'll need more help from local volunteers like Jennifer Perkins.
"This is actually my second time I chose to do it because I'm an unemployed restaurant worker right now, and I noticed that a lot of people were coming out looking for food," said Jennifer Perkins, Second Harvest of the Big Bend volunteer. "There's been a huge increase and it just seem like something that I can do to help."
"Now, more than ever before, we need our volunteers on blue sky days," Ellsworth said. "Prior to COVID we had 16,000 hours of registered volunteer time throughout the year for us. That's eight full-time staff members helping us through our volunteer efforts, and we need at least double that these days.
For more information, or if you would like to volunteer, click here.
