Tractor trailer delivers over 30,000 pounds of food to Liberty City residents
Commissioner Audrey Edmonson (l) and voluteers feeding the needy.
(Photo credit: Marta Martinez-Aleman/Commissioner Edmonson’s Office)
By Jimmie Davis, Jr.
Not only has Mt. Tabor Baptist Church (MTBC) along with their Inner City Ministry been progressive when it comes to providing free food to residents of Liberty City on a weekly basis – but they arranged to have Farm Share pull up a tractor trailer supplied with over 30,000 pounds of fresh provisions last week – that’s avant-garde.
Times are hard in the Black community and some folks don’t know where their next meal is going to come from.
Feeding the less fortunate is the primary purpose why Inner City Ministry joined forces with Audrey M. Edmonson, Miami-Dade County Commissioner, District 3, along with Farm Share to have a food distribution to let the less fortunate partake in a well balanced diet of fresh fruits, vegetables, beans, rice, chicken, bread, coffee and tea.
Liberty City has never witnessed a food giveaway of such a scale before. There were just pallets upon pallets of food, including canned goods, string beans, squash and plantains under each tent that was setup behind the church, located at 1701 N.W. 66 St., Miami, Fla.
“I’ve been feeding this community for over 20 years and I have not seen the magnitude of food or people of this size since I’ve been here,” said Rev. George McRae, pastor MTBC, during the food distribution. “This gives the church a chance to reach out to the people. It’s a great turnout.”
Mt. Tabor is known in the community for reaching out to the impoverished – but over the years, according to Misty Brown, Chief of Staff for Com-missioner Audrey Edmonson, they have lost a substantial a-mount of funding to feed the needy.
Brown says the notion of collaborating to have a large scale food distribution came last year during a Turkey giveaway at Mt. Tabor.
“We have a solid partnership with Mt. Tabor and Farm Share, because people really need food to eat,” Edmonson said. “It’s always important to give back.”
The Commissioner says it’s important to give back because when you look and see the satisfaction on a person’s face that they have food to eat – it touches you.
“It makes me feel good in life to know residents in the community have food to provide for their families,” she said. “This also makes a difference in the people’s lives in District 3.”
Food Share is a large-scale food bank that’s practically everywhere these days and their goal is to end hunger. “We’ve been here in South Florida because there’s a great need to feed hungry people,” said Elizabeth Nickerson, director of Communications for Farm Share. “We are trying to feed over 3,000 people a week across the state of Florida.”
Sylvester James, executive director and Founder of Inner City Ministry, says the outreach programs such as the food distribution, and clothes giveaway brings the community closer together.
“We came together today to give a gigantic feeding for the community,” he said. “I think it’s a marvelous thing to feed our community that’s in need.”
Rosetta Brown has family members that attend Mt. Tabor and says there are a lot of senior citizens that live in the com-munity and don’t have food to eat.
“The food that I picked up today – I will take it back and share it with others,” Brown said. “We need a blessing such as this food giveaway.”
