Pasco County legislators and officials join to help needy families prepare fresh, nutritious meals this holiday at the 2015 Farm Share Holiday Food Giveaway.
Pasco County Tax Collector Mike Fasano joins state Sen. John Legg and state Reps. Richard Corcoran and Amanda Murphy and Sheriff Chris Nocco to host the giveaway Dec. 11 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. The event, featuring fresh food donated by Florida farmers, will be at Faith Baptist Church, 9230 Ridge Road in New Port Richey. All families needing help welcome.
“We are once again blessed to work with farmers throughout Florida to provide food at this special time of the year,” Fasano said in a statement. “When so many Floridians are hurting it is wonderful to see our community come together to serve others.”
The Farm Share Giveaway, now in its 21st year, provides hundreds of families with food and other necessities to have complete holiday meal.
Farm Share, a statewide charity program, uses inmate labor and volunteers to re-sort and package surplus food for distribution to individuals, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, churches, and other organizations feeding the hungry in Florida — free of charge. The organization hosts events like the Giveaway to highlight a disturbing statistic: as much as 50 percent of all farm-produced fruit and vegetable crops never make it to supermarket shelves. Often, produce is hand sorted after picking to remove misshapen, discolored, blemished items, as well as those too big/small for consumers.
Based in South Florida, the nonprofit uses surplus food as well as contributions from Publix, The Volunteer Way and other companies and individuals – to ensure needy families throughout the state receive produce and other items prepare healthy meals both during holidays and throughout the year.
For more information, or to donate to Farm Share, visit farmshare.org.
