The message was brief however spoke volumes: “Does anyone need a package of chicken? Needs to be cooked ASAP. Pick up in Eau Gallie.”
The six pounds of chicken breasts were thawing and fast approaching the best-by date. Within minutes of the message being posted on a grassroots support group’s Facebook page, people responded yes. One woman didn’t have transportation and wanted to know if she could walk to collect the meat. Two more people posted, asking to be next in line should the first respondent not show.
“It was picked up inside half-hour of me posting it,” said Shannon Stickney, who gave away the $12 worth of chicken.
“This prompted me to wash out my freezer and pantry that weekend. I used to be in a position to put collectively two bundles of meals for 2 different households. It hurts my coronary heart that so many individuals on this group are ravenous and so lots of them are homeless. I do know what others are going via and the way they really feel.”
Hunger is a pervasive and protracted situation throughout Brevard County. It impacts the homeless and people out of labor but additionally residents with jobs and a roof over their heads, these left with little or no cash for meals after paying hire, fuel, utilities, scholar loans, medical payments and extra.
When Stacy Higginbotham, a mom of 4, wheels her grocery cart via the aisles at a Palm Bay Walmart, she’s in search of meals that may final — rice and cereal — whereas doing a model of survival math in her head, mentally dividing $40 value of floor beef into 11 meals for 5 individuals.
Jackie Shelor, a widow with well being points, hits meals pantries weekly. She needs Aldi or Walmart — shops with extra reasonably priced costs — had been nearer to her dwelling. Every dime counts.
“I love seafood but can’t afford it and I don’t eat a lot of meat due to the costs,” she stated. “I have never been rich, but I have never had to struggle like this — it’s tough to handle some days.”
How many individuals are hungry in Brevard? That’s not a straightforward query to reply however ask anybody concerned in serving to them they usually’ll inform you: too many, and the numbers are solely growing.
Statewide, an estimated 3.9 million of Florida’s 21 million individuals are scuffling with meals insecurity, in line with statistics from Farm Share, a nonprofit meals financial institution that distributes fruits, greens, and meat to individuals in want from Miami to Melbourne. Food insecurity means these missing constant entry to sufficient meals for each particular person in a family to reside an lively, wholesome life.
Here’s what we all know in regards to the Space Coast:
The hungry in Brevard defy demographic stereotypes. Some are the extra conventional impoverished. But there’s a growing quantity of people that’ve by no means been on this state of affairs earlier than.
It’s a mom skipping a meal so her youngsters can eat or scouring social media pages for assist.
It’s a father planning meals pantry visits round work, childcare, or faculty to fill his naked fridge cabinets.
It is the minimal wage employee who should stretch a household’s funds to fill the gaps between paychecks and the subsequent spherical of meals advantages.
It’s when a bowl of spaghetti with a watery sauce served at a summer time feeding program seems like a feast to a toddler.
And it’s a sense of helplessness for these making an attempt to serve their group as morepeople attain out in want however donations stay stagnant or lower whilst meals prices develop. Numbers launched in August by the Bureau of Labor Statistics inform that grim story: Grocery prices have jumped by 13.1% since summer time 2021, the most important annual improve since March 1979.
“We are seeing more and more people coming in. Many are hungry,” stated Mary Johnson, pantry program administrator on the Edna W. Jackson Food Pantry operated by Greater Allen Chapel FoodAfrican Methodist Episcopal Church in Melbourne
There, locals decide up baggage of canned items, ramen noodles and meat from cabinets stocked with items donated by church members. They’re again the subsequent month for the subsequent bag.
In a telling transfer, pantry employees have seen some younger individuals — together with youngsters — pop open a can of meals like ravioli and eat it straight from the can. That did not occur earlier than.
“To add one other dynamic, final week for our scorching lunch we served 191 meals. When we first began, in October of final yr, it was 60 meals,” Johnson said.
Early one summer morning, it was hot. Sticky, take-your-breath-away hot.
But children — and a few parents — braved the summer heat to step into the Thy Kingdom Come Church off of Pelham Street in south Melbourne.
Inside, there was a godsend for 49-year-old Rachelle Thompson and her two children.
Volunteers with the Read and Feed Program had arrange to-go containers loaded with rooster smothered in gravy over white rice, combined greens and a chunk of bread, a lot of it funded with a $5,000 grant from the Palm Bay Police Department.
There was fruit. Water. And free books, together with Harry Potter, dictionaries and extra.
The children saved coming — on the peak, 94 of them.
“Things like this help,” Thompson stated. “I’m here because I don’t have enough right now to take care of my kids” even with her $400 in food stamps each month.
Inflation has taken a chunk out of that, she said.
“I’m buying noodles, ramen, hot dogs. The groceries are so expensive right now, but you have to feed them, and you have to think about their nutrition,” Thompson stated.
Palm Bay Police Officer Parker Farmer helped collect baggage loaded with provides. He sees the affect of the sluggish financial system not solely within the room, but additionally on the streets that he patrols.
“I’m hearing about it on all ends, even from some officers who say, ‘Hey, I got to work some extra details to grab some groceries or pay the mortgage,'” the 41-year-old community relations officer said.
The last week of July saw almost bare shelves at the North Brevard Charities Sharing Center’s pantry in Titusville. It’s funded largely by donations from the public although they do also order some food from Second Harvest for pennies on the dollar. A United Way of Brevard and Publix drive meant there was at least a large supply of peanut butter and jelly until shelves were replenished.
“We’re getting drawn down on food at a much more rapid pace than what we used to be, and the lines are longer,” stated Brian Walton, govt director.
“More individuals are displaying up than ever earlier than … we attempt to accommodate that.”
While breakfast will continue to be offered free for all Brevard Public Schools students this school year, for many, Saturday and Sunday could be lean days without the help of a nonprofit organization founded in 2010 to serve one school. Today, that nonprofit, The Children’s Hunger Project, distributes 3,200 weekend food packages through about 50 Brevard elementary schools.
Sysco partnered with Second Harvest and Hands for Healing to feed 1000
Sysco Foods partnered with Second Harvest and Hands for Healing to distribute 1000 meals and groceries in Palm Bay on May 17th.
Florida Today
While staff doesn’t meet the families, they do know their stories — and in some cases, the stories of need speak to desperation.
“Some of those dad and mom are working two and three jobs, and one particular person cannot work as a result of they’re making an attempt to handle their youngsters. Some have prolonged household dwelling with them,” said Cheryl Cominsky, executive director.
“They’re not in a position to do it. There’s no making ends meet … so lots of our youngsters, their major meals sources are breakfast and lunch in school. And that is why we do what we will, to bridge that hole.”
Show up early on a Monday at the Central Brevard Sharing Center in Cocoa. You won’t be alone.
Always, there’s someone waiting either for their every-60-day allotment of staples through the Emergency Food Program, or for the lunch that will be served later in the morning. Or help with utility bills or prescriptions. Or all of the above.
“On a private degree all of it takes a toll,” said David Brubaker, Sharing Center president and CEO. “Seeing the eyes of starvation, or an individual who’s scuffling with sobriety, or one who sees no hope of their lives, is tough on the eyes and heavy in your coronary heart.”
Between January and June 2022, the Emergency Food Program provided food to 6,657 people. On average, registrants eat there 20 times a year.
Brubaker said the past few years have been some of the hardest he’s seen in his 20-plus years at the Sharing Center.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to exact a toll in terms of volunteers, donations and also people’s personal economic stability. Many who’d been living paycheck to paycheck lost their foothold.
Pamela Gunthorpe, executive director of the South Brevard Sharing Center, said she’s seeing working people make a choice: pay for housing or pay for food.
In May, 850 households — some with multiple family members — requested food help from the Melbourne nonprofit. In June, that number more than doubled, to 2,100.
Malcolm Denemark / Florida Today
“In my opinion these people are doing everything they can to afford their skyrocketing rent and forgoing food, and then reaching out to local food pantries,” Gunthorpe stated.
“And the ones struggling the most are the disabled, elderly and those who work service sector jobs.”
She recalled the plight of a pregnant homeless girl who spoke in entrance of the Brevard County Commission in March 2022, telling them how she had “gone all throughout your county trying to find some kind of help.”
“That should not be how it’s,” Gunthorpe said.
“That one particular person discovered a manner and the braveness to step up in entrance of a bunch to inform her story. But lots of if not 1000’s of our neighbors throughout Brevard are in the same state of affairs, simply making an attempt to get by. Our elected officers want to consider their whole constituency, not simply those who contribute to their campaigns and have the wherewithal to achieve out to them.”
For the current year the Housing and Human Services Department has contracts totaling $547,000 for Meals on Wheels, a Community Kitchen Program, and a Community Nutrition Program, said Ian Golden, the county’s Housing and Human Services Department director.
“These are a mixture of common income and different funding sources included in our annual funds,” he said.
The Brevard County Commission has not given final approval for next year’s budget yet.
Brevard County received $105.03 million in federal CARES Act funds, money meant to assist people affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The bulk of the money went to county and municipal governments, to medical and public health programs, and to public safety. Another $25 million was divided among the five commissioners who in a 3-2 vote allocated themselves $5 million apiece to spend as they saw fit. The commissioners spent the money on a variety of things, including a public safety fund, reimbursing Parrish Medical Center for COVID-related expenses and grants for small businesses and nonprofits.
Just 10.1% of the $105.03 million was targeted for individuals and families, and to food assistance programs — in the case of the latter, specifically, $4 million for a “meals stability program.”
MALCOLM DENEMARK/FLORIDA TODAY
That enterprise expanded conventional meals pantries and meals banks together with “pop-up” meals pantries at church buildings and different places; offered weekend meals to youngsters; and provided people $50 in “CARES Act dollars,” within the type of tokens, to make use of at farmers’ markets for contemporary vegetables and fruit and different meals gadgets. In sum, $1,944,067 value of tokens had been redeemed by the tip of this system.
“By the time we phased out the food stability program funded through CARES, a little over $4.6 million in total was expended on it,” stated Golden, including that further CARES funds had been requested and acquired.
Golden added that the commissioners have continued to authorize funds for use for diet packages.
“Specifically, we have received two tranches, totaling approximately $2.2 million in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) coronavirus funds and the Commission twice approved conducting Request for Proposals (RFPs) with multiple priority areas including community nutrition,” he stated.
The want would not appear to be slowing.
In the south a part of the county, two months in the past, single mother Stacy Higginbotham was pressured to give up her job after the sudden loss of life of her household’s babysitter.
She and her youngsters, ages 10, 7, 5 and a couple of, reside in Section 8 housing in south Melbourne.
Since the pandemic, her household has been on the sting financially however now, with inflation consuming away at her funds, that edge is at a tipping level.
Every weekday throughout the summer time, Higginbotham and her youngsters walked from their condominium to the United Way of Brevard’s Read and Feed program, which offers meals, mentoring and free books to youngsters. This previous summer time, the United Way program operated at 24 websites.
Higginbotham watched her youngsters break into smiles over the recent, nutritious meals ready by volunteers. The spaghetti served in the future received two thumbs up from one among her daughters.
“It’s a struggle and I’m tired,” Higginbotham stated.
She described pulling milk from a fridge shelf at Walmart, centered not solely on the value however the query of how lengthy it will final.
“I spent over $400 for groceries and it looks like I have nothing. I try to go everywhere that’s cheap,” Higginbotham stated
“You get a lot of rice, things you can stretch out. I spent $40 on hamburger, so that’s 11 meals. I have to plan everything out.
“Sometimes I don’t eat so they can. All they know is that they are hungry and I’m up late at night crying, trying to make sure they eat.”
On any given day, on the Mutual Aid Brevard Facebook page, you’ll find posts from people of all ages and races, from young, single mothers to couples with children to grandparents raising their grandkids; from the homeless to the working poor.
The pandemic-inspired group, which had almost 17,000 members as of Labor Day, helps people find food and other assistance on the Space Coast. More than two years after its founding by Satellite Beach resident Stacey Patel, she and administrators are swamped with posts and requests.
MALCOLM DENEMARK/FLORIDA TODAY
Over the course of June and July, the group had 12,230 posts and feedback, and 381,895 views.
Post and remark quantity has elevated 187.65% since June 2, and 1,322 new members have joined within the final 60 days.
“As grocery, rent, and gas prices rise, the needs are only expanding,” stated Patel.
“I don’t know if fed folks can imagine the kind of desperation and suffering our neighbors are facing — even those working multiple low-wage jobs in our community cannot feed and shelter themselves and their children. It’s hard to fathom the barriers folks face to make a living, from sick family members to mental health crises to domestic violence to licenses suspended for court debts that can never be paid.”
When a neighborhood resident provided a field that included a “few cans of Spam, a case of cup ‘o noodles” and different gadgets, 4 households tried to say the field in lower than half-hour.
This will not be atypical. In the 4 days ending Aug. 2, Mutual Aid had 14 requests for meals assist.
They included dad and mom in a “panic search for formula,” families in quarantine looking for meals, a man searching for a “spare loaf of bread,” a homeless pregnant woman looking for water, and a mom of “a three year old and an 11 year old that has to eat” who stated “anything will help (even if it’s just for them).”
MALCOLM DENEMARK/FLORIDA TODAY
Jackie Shelor of Palm Bay, 64, seems to Mutual Aid typically for help, each bodily and emotional.
Widowed 10 years in the past, she’s had a slew of medical points, some requiring main surgical procedure, over the previous few years.
Shelor’s two sons, each of their 20s, reside together with her.
One son, Jake, is an impartial contractor whose checks would possibly vary from nothing to $500. He chips in on bills. Her different son, John, is in search of work and interviewing.
Her complete earnings for the month: $1,439 in Social Security incapacity earnings.
She pays $178 monthly for Medicare, $473 for her mortgage, $289 to FPL, $80 for web, $150 for automobile insurance coverage and $110 per quarter for trash pickup.
That would not embrace medical invoice funds.
Or wanted repairs on her dwelling, that are going uncompleted.
Or meals.
So Shelor, too, hits meals pantries weekly.
“My biggest expense is food and beverage and I spend at least $500,” she stated. “And those are the basics. I use a smart TV and watch free streaming shows rather than cable … I would love to get insurance for my sons but they have quoted me $89 per month for each of them.”
For these with youngsters in class, the tip of the common free faculty lunch program that helped households throughout the COVID-19 pandemic means extra funds tightening.
One mom posted on the Mutual Aid Brevard web site shortly after faculty began, asking for assist with some snacks for her baby and sharing an image of the zero steadiness on her meals advantages card.
“Anyone be willing to order my son some snacks for school unfortunately had to renew last month so I got them on the 4th of august and don’t get them again till sept 21 and he’s running really low (yes I work full time with bills going up it’s just harder),” she wrote.
Another member of the group despatched snacks to the mother through Amazon.
“If we want to build a thriving community where folks aren’t suffering and struggling just to survive, we must be willing to speak out about our own challenges without shame,” Mutual Aid founder Patel stated.
“And we must bear witness and truly be present to the pain of others — including those whose lives are very different from our own.”
Rachelle Thompson and Stacy Higginbotham are like numerous different Space Coast residents, and tens of millions of Americans. While they do not see or anticipate any fast fixes to their struggles, their backside line is that this: My household and I have to eat.
TIM SHORTT/ FLORIDA TODAY
These two Brevard mothers are simply grateful to have the ability to put meals on the desk; to feed their youngsters, when their financial institution accounts, their cabinets and their morale are stripped naked.
Both would go with out earlier than they’d let their youngsters go hungry. Both do their greatest to cover their concern. Both are fearful about what’s subsequent.
“This is the longest I’ve been without a job,” Thompson stated including that she may be very frightened about what the longer term holds.
“It’s tiring,” she stated.
For Stacey Higginbotham, watching her youngsters get a stable meal helps ease her worries — however just for a short whereas.
In late July, Gov. Ron DeSantis introduced, as a part of the state’s funds, “one-time payments” of $450 per baby to 59,000 Florida households, together with foster households, adoptive households and single moms who met eligibility necessities.
“This one-time payment can be used for anything from buying diapers to fueling at the pump… please accept this payment as a form of gratitude and acknowledgment for all that you do to help nurture Florida’s future. God bless you, and God bless the great state of Florida,” the letter acquired by recipients stated partially.
Every week after the announcement, Higginbotham discovered hers was not one of many households assembly the rules for the one-time checks.
She fears a recession and meals shortages.
“I can’t even watch the news. If that happens, it’s going to be hit or miss. We’ve already been adjusting; our shopping has changed,” she stated.
“I’m just praying we don’t become homeless.”
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