IMMOKALEE, FL. — The Benison Center launched it's mobile food pantry this week to help those in need in Immokalee.
"The white box is a combo box that has protein: it's meat, cheese, and vegetables. The brown boxes are a mixture of fresh fruit and vegetables," said Frank Rincon, Director of the Benison Center.
On Thursday, dozens of cars lined up along New Harvest Road W., waiting to get boxes filled with fresh produce and other goods.
But The Benison Center isn't doing it alone, it's a combined effort with Oakes Farms and volunteers from local organizations, like the Guadalupe Center, RCMA, and The Immokalee Foundation.
As well as Collier County Emergency Management.
"It’s just a great collaboration of community organizations coming together," said Rincon.
Initially, The Benison Center was only going to receive 3,000 of the white boxes from World Vision U.S, but Oakes Farms is providing thousands of additional boxes as part of the USDA Farm to Families Program.
"This program is designed to help farmers feed the families that really need the help during these tough times," said Steve Veneziano, Vice President of Oakes Farms.
Oakes Farms was contracted by the USDA to produce 600,000 produce boxes for this program.
"It's creating a demand within farms all over the United States. A lot of these crops were being destroyed, there was no movement on it, so this has created the movement," said Alfie Oakes, the Owner of Oakes Farms.
The boxes packaged by Oakes Farms are to be delivered across the Southeast Region of the U.S, including in Immokalee.
"We are blessed because of all the extra work this creates to not have to lay anyone off. We've actually put an additional 150 to 200 hundred people to work," said Oakes.
The USDA Farms to Families Program is set to end at the end of June, but Oakes says there is still a need for more.
"We're going to run out of the boxes here with about two weeks left of the program, so we've reached out to the senator and the heads of the USDA to see if they would allocate for us to do even more boxes," said Oakes.
Families at Thursday's distribution expressing gratitude for the boxes.
"I'm from Immokalee, I love this community, and I do this because there are other people who do this, there are other people that give it their all, and if I just give it my all alongside these other folks, we can accomplish anything," said Rincon.
The mobile food pantry will be taking place in Immokalee every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday until the end of June, from 12:00 p.m to 6:00 p.m.
Oakes Farms will also be distributing boxes of fresh produce at the SWFL Military Museum & Library on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays until further notice.
People can pick them up from 10:00 a.m until noon.
To learn more on the Benison Center, click here.
