To keep farms — and food distributions — afloat, Miami-Dade disburses $900,000 in aid
As farmers wait to receive their share of a $9.5 billion federal bailout for the agriculture industry, Miami-Dade County has allocated nearly $900,000 to food banks and community-based groups to purchase produce from the county’s farms.
Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced the coronavirus relief package at a press conference Saturday, but the program began on Monday, according to the head of the statewide packinghouse, Farm Share, which received $500,000 in county aid.
Farms, which regularly donate their surplus to food banks, saw their sales sink after governments across the country shut down restaurants, and the coronavirus pandemic forced the entire tourism and hospitality industry to grind to a halt. With no one to sell to, they gave a lot of their crops away. Now they’re getting paid for it.
“This is a great win-win,” said Stephen Shelley, the president and CEO of Farm Share. “Now the farmers are finally getting their financial compensation. That’s the big benefit.”
Even before the program went into effect, Shelley said his organization was taking in far more produce than usual. Since the first week of March, his group has handed out 720 pounds of food per week in Miami-Dade County, as elected leaders and volunteers across the county have participated in food distributions.
On average, he said, Farm Share receives about 1.5 million pounds of food a month.
“Within the first 10 days of April, I picked up over a million pounds of produce,” he said. “That’s a huge increase.”
Gimenez said the goal of the program is to keep farms afloat financially and assist food-distribution organizations, like Farm Share and Feeding South Florida, purchase produce from farmers and distribute them to the public.
“It’s a double whammy,” Gimenez said outside Sam Accursio and Sons Farms. “Number One: We allocated more money so that the farmers can sell their produce to our food banks, and then these food banks in turn help those that are in need.”
He called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to move faster to disburse federal aid to farmers.
Despite a steady supply from farmers and demand from residents experiencing joblessness or other financial hardships, food distribution efforts have been stymied by excess supply and a lack of trucks to carry the food, said Miami Beach Commissioner David Richardson, who has organized regular at-home and drive-thru food distributions across the city in recent weeks.
Food distributions help needy amid coronavirus
While farms routinely donate excess produce to community organizations, tax deductions won’t plug the hole left by plunging revenues, he said.
“Farmers have been giving food to these organizations, but tax deductions don’t do you any good if you don’t have any revenue,” Richardson said. “I really hope that the money is going to be used to keep the farmers in business.”
Richardson, who has worked with Seniors in Action, Feeding South Florida and Farm Share, said community groups need so much help transporting the food they have that he is planning to use a portion of his monthly commission stipend to rent a refrigerated truck and continue feeding those who need it.
“Right now there’s such demand, and Farm Share and Feeding South Florida have only so many trucks,” he said.
Shelley, who is also a Homestead councilman, said his organization used its allocation to purchase a semi trailer full of produce from South Dade on Wednesday and rent two additional semi trailers with accompanying drivers. Farm Share is aiming to run four to six truckloads a day under the program.
How the program works is that the county sent a survey to farms to gauge interest and then negotiated maximum prices for different crops. For example, a crate of beans goes for about $14. Most truckloads carry about $13,000 worth of produce.
And instead of receiving surplus produce, Shelley’s group is now getting top-tier goods that would have normally gone to supermarkets or restaurants. And amid staggering unemployment rates — 650,000 Floridians have filed for benefits from the state — food distributions have become common sights around the area.
“This has been a great program,” he said. “The county should be commended for stepping up.”
The $830 million agriculture economy trails only tourism and trade as the county’s highest grossing industries. Plant nurseries account for about $600 million in yearly sales, Gimenez said.
The local growing season, which runs from November to May, has been cut short by coronavirus-induced shutdowns of the hospitality and restaurant industries. With nowhere to sell their crops, farmers have been forced to plow their product back into the dirt, which Gimenez called a “tragedy.”
“The recent COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the final third of our farmers’ vegetable season,” Gimenez said. “More than 50 percent of our farmers’ customer base disappeared when the businesses were forced to shut down here in the United States and Canada.”
This story was originally published April 18, 2020 at 5:14 PM.
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