Local Organizations Work to Feed their Neighbors

Local Organizations Work to Feed their Neighbors

Story and photographs by José Pérez

Lost in the South Beach glitz and tropical glamor usually associated with South Florida is the fact that hunger is a no stranger to many people that live and work in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe Counties.   A recent national study, in fact, shows that Miami-Dade is one of the United States’ hungriest counties. 

Every month, however, food distribution and feedings are held in different parts of the area to address this serious need.    For example, last Saturday morning, Farm Share teamed up with Christ Fellowship Church, State  Representative Frank Artiles (R-118), and student volunteers from Miami Jackson Senior High School to distribute food at Jackson High.  Within the first hour, 300 families received bananas, romaine lettuce, sweet potatoes, plantains, potatoes, frozen lamb, and shelf stable foods such as rice, beans, dried fruit at no charge.   A few hours later, over 700 people had taken food home to their families, said Farm Share’s Mia DeVane.

“Farm Share is the largest fresh produce program in Florida and the only statewide and local food bank program that does not charge a fee for any food it provides to community organizations,” said DeVane.

While this week’s Farm Share event was in Allapattah, the organization, which is based in Homestead, holds similar activities in different parts of the community and they are not alone.

On the third Saturday of every month, a proud group of women in Opa-locka's depressed Magnolia Gardens neighborhood pull from their own humble resources to feed their neighbors. Setting up shop in front of an abandoned grocery store, the group, which is not affiliated with any church or non-profit and receives no help from any government entity, feeds hot meals to single mothers and their children, elderly bachelors, homeless people and shut-in seniors.  Each month, the group, which calls itself GRUB (which stands for “Giving Regardless, United Bodies”) feeds more than 100 people – for free.

The two most prominent faces of GRUB are Diana Smith and her daughter, Kim.   

GRUB feeds people out of their own pockets, from their own meager resources supplemented every now and then with small yet appreciated donations from entities like the South Florida Home Childcare Association.

All of the food prepared is homemade and served across the street from an empty lot on a blighted stretch of Ali Baba Avenue, just blocks from the Opa-locka Police Department.  “We just get together and feed the neighborhood,” said Diana Smith as music played and dominoes smacked on table tops behind her.

During one Saturday’s feeding, Kim Smith went to drop off heaping plates of food to shut-ins in a semi-abandoned building owned by a local church that is both next door neighbor and landlord for that sad building.  As she drove to and from, the younger Smith kept the windows to her car rolled down so she could call out to passerby – most by name – reminding them to come by and “grab a plate.” 

All of this from a woman who was out of work when she, her mother, and other friends and relatives decided to feed their neighbors in Spring of this year.

Why? “90% of the time, people don’t eat,” said Smith.  She added that many of those that come to eat each month are illiterate, isolated, or whose health insurance is lacking.  “We are the forgotten.”

Data published in a recently released study by Feeding America supports Smith’s observations. 

Feeding America found that about sixteen and a half percent of the residents of both Broward and Palm Beach counties are food insecure while less than 13% of the people that live in Monroe County and almost 18% of the people that live in Miami-Dade County meet the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s criteria for food insecurity, which is defined by the USDA as having “limited or uncertain access to adequate food.”

The percentage of people with inconsistent or limited food access in the state of Florida is 18.7%. 

Importantly, many of those people in the four county area of South Florida that are considered “food insecure” live above the income threshold established to determine eligibility for food programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, (more commonly known as food stamps).  In short, they make too much money to be able to qualify for SNAP and “other food programs.”   How many people in South Florida are food insecure but do not qualify for federal help?   The numbers for Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe are 39%, 34%, 20%, and 32% respectively.

The number of children that are food insecure but do not meet eligibility requirements for SNAP or the Women, Infant & Children’s food program, or WIC, jumps significantly in Miami-Dade where over a third of the children are caught in between a heavy rock and a hungry place.  

“Farm Share absorbs the people that don’t get food stamps,” said Beatriz Lopez, Executive District Secretary to Artiles.

In addition to the bigger community events held each month, Farm Share also serves hundreds of “non profits that pick up food from our facilities and take it back to their communities,” from Monday through Friday, said DeVane.

According to DeVane, “Farm Share has provided more than $40 million in food to those in poverty in Florida” in 2013. State Representative Artiles added that, by reaching out to give food to people in need, Farm Share “saves produce that would be discarded” by farmers because many super markets do not want fruits or vegetables that do not meet a certain aesthetic criteria or what DeVane called “minor imperfections.” 

Giving the extra or unmarketable produce to Farm Share can earn “up to 200% tax credit for farmers,” said DeVane.

*To read this article as it appeared in the South Florida Times, please click on this urlink.

Community’s drive for cityhood threatened by annexation plan

Community’s drive for cityhood threatened by annexation plan

Story & photographs by José Pérez

NORTH CENTRAL MIAMI-DADE – Efforts to create a new city out of a large area of unincorporated North Miami-Dade County are running into new obstacles. 

After waiting for a decade-long moratorium on incorporation to be lifted, supporters of the North Central Dade Area Municipal Advisory Committee (NCDA-MAC) say that neighboring municipalities are making moves to take annex key areas of the proposed city.

The Rev. Dr. Mark Gardner, senior pastor of Northside Church of God, a member of NCDA’s steering committee, said that Opa-locka has openly declared its intention to annex 822 acres of land located south of Northwest 127th Street, east of Northwest 27th Avenue, north of Northwest 107th Street and west of Northwest 37th Avenue. 

The area, listed in Opa-locka city records as “Annexation Area B,” sits in the northwest corner of the incorporation area originally outlined by NCDA leaders several years earlier.  

Opa-locka’s plans to annex the area are not mere speculation.  “They started their process and they are moving forward with it,” Gardner said.

Opa-locka’s Assistant City Manager David Chiverton confirmed that the annexation plan was approved earlier this summer by city leaders.  “Our [city] commission has approved the order,” said Chiverton, who added that there is currently “no timeline” as to when Opa-locka will advance the annexation process.

The motivation for opalocka city officials is simple: increased revenue. According to an annexation report published by the City of Opa-locka, acquiring the land would "expand city boundaries" to include commercial and industrial properties.  According to the report, this expansion is expected to generate revenue via "impact fees for development, code enforcement, [and] fines" in the annexed areas.

Mack Samuel, a member of the NCDA-MAC, said the area for Application B, which is primarily commercial, with warehouses in abundance, is estimated to be worth $266 million in taxable value annually – which would severely deplete the tax base of the proposed city.   Because there are no known residents living in that area, there is little to hinder Opa-locka – or other areas – from annexing it.

Ed Lopez, president of Antilles Freight Corporation, said that Hialeah has also expressed in interest in acquiring the area that Opa-locka is trying to annex ahead of any incorporation by the NCDA-MAC.  Calls to the City of Hialeah were not returned for confirmation before press time.

According to the Miami-Dade County Charter, a referendum on annexation or incorporation is not needed if less than 250 people live in the area in question.

Alarmed by the threat to their plans to create what would be Florida’s second-largest majority-black city after Miami Gardens, NCDA leaders addressed the Opa-locka City Commission in late July.

“Our position was to inform them that our process has been ongoing for the past 10 years.  We wanted to make sure that they were aware of that. Our desire was for them to put the brakes on it,” Gardner said.

Gardner and Mack were not alone in opposing the annexation plans in the Opa-locka Commission chambers. 

Some business owners in Application Area B also spoke out against the proposal.  Lopez said that the business community in Gratigny Industrial Park, where his business has been since the late 1990's, was not at all happy with the plan to bring them into Opa-locka.  The biggest concern cited by Lopez would be a spike in property taxes for him and his neighbors.   According to Miami-Dade County records, the millage rate for unincorporated Miami-Dade County – which the business are now paying – is under $2 for every $1,000 or taxable property value, whereas the rate for Opa-locka is just above $9, second-highest in the County behind Biscayne Park ($9.50).

“It doesn’t make any economic sense to be in Opa-locka,” Lopez said.

Lopez, Gardner, Mack and Felix Lasarte, an attorney representing Lopez and other business owners, all doubted that the anticipated steep increase in taxes will yield a corresponding improvement increase in services if the Opa-locka annexation effort succeeds.

Chiverton pointed out that the area is already being served by the Opa-locka police department. He acknowledged what he called “a cross-section of concerns” presented to the city commission related to cost and financial impact for local businesses. Water and sewage services for the area would picked up by Opa-locka if the annexation is approved.

“What services are they providing to offset” the increase in taxes, asked Lopez.   “They promised one more police officer but that won’t make a difference.”

For Opa-locka city leaders, the move has benefits for residents,  Chiverton said. He sees the proposed annexation as a way to create jobs by attracting businesses with manufacturing and assembly specialties.

“The interest of the city is to complete what the commission approved,” he said

Lopez disagreed, saying, “It’s going to be a ghost town.”

Asked if business owners will consider suing to stop the annexation, Lasarte said that “all options are on the table.”

“The property owners intend to protect themselves.  They want to have a say in the process,” he said.

The NCDA-MAC also wants to ensure that any annexation move is decided by residents.

“It is important that the area be given an opportunity to incorporate,” Gardner said.

“The citizens deserve the right to vote,” Mack added.        

For the record, NCDA organizers do not yet know what its mill would be.  When asked, Lopez said he prefers that the area remain unincorporated but he had to "choose from the lesser of three evils," he'd pick Hialeah because their millage rate is 6.3.

*To read this article as it appeared in the South Florida Times, please click on this urlink.