Free groceries are available in Miami at this drive-through spot. Just pop the trunk
A line of cars snaked around a half mile from I-95 to an Overtown parking lot where volunteers dropped groceries into still-moving cars.
“Just keep going. Don’t stop. When you drive, suave, suave, but don’t stop,” Terry Elliott Sr. told drivers through their cracked windows.
For the second week in a row, Elliott’s Ark of the City non-profit partnered with the food rescue Farm Share to find a smarter way to get donated food to people in need during the coronavirus pandemic — all while limiting contact.
The innovation: Drive-through drop offs.
Last week, this line of traffic wove eight miles through Overtown, a Farm Share representative said, as people suddenly left without work worried about where they might find their next meal.
A team of 14, from Farm Share staff to neighborhood volunteers from the community organization Circle of Brotherhood, slipped groceries from different stations into those trunks, like an assembly line, with the last person flipping the trunk shut.
In the past, locals could walk up and take home bags of donations. But in a time of the quickly spreading coronavirus, food banks had to find a better way. A calendar for their food drops is available at Farm Share’s website.
“This way, people can get their food and don’t have to be on top of one another,” Farm Share’s Jorge Orama said.
Each car left with a week’s worth of groceries: a gallon of milk, sealed bags of chicken, lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, apples, oranges, eggs and packaged bread, as well as canned goods from black beans and pink salmon to tomato sauce.
“We’re giving you enough food to cook meals for a week,” Elliott said. “Not just one hot meal.”
Farm Share is also working with Lyft to provide $25 ride credits to people who want to take advantage of Farm Share’s giveaways but lack transportation to get to the drive-thru sites.
Farm Share is working with its partners in South Florida to identify those in need of transportation, including anyone who shows up at the sites without a car. Several on foot were turned away Wednesday fearing someone would get hit by a car.
This means you can’t just call Lyft and ask for the discount; you must be identified as a person in need. One downside: long lines at the drive-thru sites can potentially hike the price of a Lyft ride above $25.
Diane Perez needed these groceries. Last week she was laid off from her dental office job and her husband had his hours cut at the warehouse where he works. They have a toddler at home and grandparents to care for, as well.
“It’s a blessing to get this help,” Perez said from inside her minivan through a baby blue mask. “When you have family and you’re out of work, this is very helpful.”
Sinclair Manley tossed milk jugs two by two into a car with two families (they showed their IDs) inside. An Overtown resident and volunteer with Circle of Brotherhood, he said he knows how quickly losing a job can lead to hunger.
“This is everybody’s problem right now,” he said. “My family needs. Everybody family needs… So every day, I’ll be here.”
This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 5:19 PM.
