Fighting Hunger In South Florida
Hunger does not discriminate – it affects people of all religions and it affects children, senior citizens, the unemployed, the mentally and physically challenged, homeless people, the working poor and victims of natural disaster. But children are the largest segment of our society experiencing hunger. Over 295,000 children in South Florida are living in poverty and experiencing hunger everyday. Did you know that one out of every 5 people at a soup line is a child?
The Daily Bread Food Bank is a not-for-profit organization that empowers other South Florida not-for-profit organizations to feed needy people and help improve their lives. They do this by providing food and other grocery products and also by educating and engaging the community to fight hunger and poverty.
The Daily Bread Food Bank has 5 locations in 4 counties. Six trucks pick up food and other products that otherwise would be wasted due to packaging errors, minor damage, discontinuance of the product etc… The items are brought to the central warehouse in Miami. The food is then distributed to the other warehouses. Approximately 800 not-for-profit charitable feeding programs avail themselves of the Daily Bread Food Bank by purchasing food (from -0- to 18 cents per pound). All bread products and perishables are free. The Daily Bread Food Bank distributes over 18 million pounds of food each year.
These are big numbers and the size of those numbers initially made it sound like the Daily Bread Food Bank would not be a place where Hands On Tzedakah could make a meaningful difference. While the organization receives $26.5 million of in-kind funding in terms of donated food, the actual dollar budget is just $4.9 million. Their audited financial statement shows that only 1.9% of their budget is spent on administrative expenses. To accomplish all this on so little a budget, allows for some latitude in defining the term, "below the radar screen." We applaud their resourcefulness.
Daily Bread Food Bank is a member of America’s Second Harvest, the National Food Bank Network. There are many opportunities for volunteers to get involved.
Our Involvement
There is no room for extras in the budget; there is no room for emergencies in the budget. On our first visit to the Daily Bread Food Bank, we were given a list of safety concerns within the Miami warehouse concerning electrical and lighting wiring issues. Hands On Tzedakah responded by paying for the re-wiring and electrical installation of lighting fixtures for their refrigerated warehouse to make the refrigeration area safe and ultimately to ensure the food stays refrigerated and untainted for distribution.
Subsequent Developments
HOT purchased an electric pallet jack for the Daily Bread Food Bank. This piece of equipment is really a portable forklift, which streamlined and improved their level of efficiency by allowing for the maximization of movement of thousands more pounds of food each week. There are many other unbudgeted and unmet needs at the Daily Bread Food Bank.
Contact Information:
Daily Bread Food Bank, Keytia Amoedo, 5850 NW 32 Ave., Miami, FL 33142, (305) 633-9861, http://www.dailybread.org
