TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — The Tallahassee Urban League hosts a free food distribution every Monday at 11 a.m., delivering fresh produce and pantry staples to Frenchtown residents facing limited supermarket access.
- Supplies arrive from Second Harvest of the Big Bend, and volunteers pack and distribute fresh produce and pantry items to help families stretch tight budgets.
- The program addresses a local food‑access gap. Many Frenchtown residents lack nearby grocery stores and depend on walking, biking, or public transit to get food.
- Watch the video below to see why this food distribution is a lifeline for some residents.
Tallahassee Urban League brings free groceries to Frenchtown every Monday
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Convenient grocery stores in Frenchtown are scarce, leaving many families with limited access to fresh food.
I'm Lyric Sloan in Northwest Tallahassee, showing you how a weekly food distribution is bringing groceries back to the neighborhood.
Every Monday, the Tallahassee Urban League flips its doors into a food distribution site.
Pallets arrive from Second Harvest, volunteers set up stations, and from 11:00 a.m. until supplies runs out, neighbors come to pick up groceries at no cost.
"I live in the area, so I grew up in Tallahassee. There were a lot of grocery stores in Frenchtown, and after all that closed, and it was very inconvenient for a lot of people in the area that couldn't get to the grocery store," local resident Carrie Gilcreast, said.
For residents who walk, bike, or rely on the bus, a trip to a supermarket can be long and expensive.
That's why bringing food to the neighborhood matters.
"Due to the economy and the way the economy is, anything helps, and the price of turkeys are extremely high, and it will help stretch the meal for the holidays, Gilcreast said.
Organizers say many families are juggling rent, medicine, and other bills, and food often gets pushed to the back burner.
The Tallahassee Urban League aims to change that by making fresh produce and pantry staples available where people live.
"A lot of people don't know what it means to be hungry. A lot of people don't know what it means to not know where the next meal is coming from, because we are so blessed. But there are some people out there we are serving, not only low-income families, but we are serving homeless families. There are some families out there and individuals out there they don't know where their next meal is coming from," Curtis Taylor, Urban League CEO and President, said.
For many residents in Frenchtown, this is their only access to fresh food.
As demand grows, distributions like these remain essential.
The Tallahassee Urban League says they will continue to do this food distribution every Monday at 11:00 a.m.
In Northwest Tallahassee, Lyric Sloan, ABC, 27
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