If you have enough to eat these days, help someone in Miami who doesn’t | Editorial

Not everyone is chasing after toilet paper.

So many in our community are chasing after something so much more important: a daily meal.

The long lines overwhelming food banks are yet another testament that low-income and out-of-work South Floridians are getting hit harder than the rest of us. No surprise there.

For those who live one paycheck away from disaster, the coronavirus has made the day a reality. That check has disappeared, and a newly jobless population has sent the demand for food soaring.

So we all owe our thanks to South Florida’s food banks and pantries, social agencies, churches and professional teams for stepping up and filling in a crucial gap in the food chain created by the pandemic.

Volunteers are out in the streets, risking their health, to give food to a family that might go hungry. Hardest hit are children who now miss readily available school breakfast or lunches.

Long lines for food

As proof, the lines of cars outside any announced food giveaways are only getting longer. More people are being turned away. “Two weeks out from their last paycheck, buying food is getting harder for families, and the need for what we do is greater,” Stephen Shelley, CEO of Farm Share, told the Editorial Board.

At a food giveaway at Marlins Park in Little Havana on Wednesday, sponsored by the baseball team and Farm Share, volunteers arrived at 7:30 a.m. to find a line of cars a mile long for the 500 meals to be handed out on a first-come, first-served basis.

Volunteers formed an assembly line, and as drivers pulled up, with their trunks open, they placed the donations in the car. Unfortunately, many cars had to be turned away.

Across town, at Alonzo Mourning’s Overtown Youth Center, volunteers were also overwhelmed by the need that sent many home empty-handed — until Friday. Mourning, along with DeliverLean, have pledged to hand out food three days a week.

“I have never been more worried about the basic needs and fate of children and families as I am today,” Mourning said in a news release. “In communities where our programs are located, the average income is less than $35,000 per family, and over 70 percent of children are raised by single parents.”

The concern is warranted, especially the longer the shutdown continues.

Food banks scramble

To meet the demand, food banks in Miami-Dade to Broward have had to hustle to get produce, meats, poultry and milk.

Food banks have joined forces with local farmers whose crops were left on the vine to rot when the restaurants shuttered and school cafeterias didn’t need tomatoes.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez is trying to get aid for the South Dade farmers who had to give away their crops to food banks and social agencies.

Donations for the giveaways have also come in from local large chain grocery stores. And Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried has jumped in to make the connections between those with wasting crops and those who need food to giveaway.

Now, smaller grassroots groups are joining in to help those being missed. The all-women group Urban Oasis Project is taking orders to distribute fresh food and vegetables. Led by Christina Bauza, the group is preparing “care packages” for the homeless; providing food to everyone they bail out of jail; and mobilizing a street team in Liberty City and Overtown to connect with more residents in need.

That’s called being your brother’s, and your sister’s, keeper. Support those leading food giveaways. They, too, are valued first responders.