In Palm Harbor on Saturday you can get free fresh fruits, vegetables & meats

This summer there will be four more opportunities for families in Pinellas County to receive free fresh food from a drive-through mobile food pantry. The next food pantry is scheduled for Saturday, June 29th in Palm Harbor. It’s at FEAST, 1119 Illinois Ave.

The first food drive served over 400 families this past Saturday.

An email news release from the Juvenile Welfare Board (JWB) and St. Petersburg Free Clinic (SPFC) provided details about this and the other five free food events that they anticipate will help feed about 2,000 families.

Listen:

JWB’s Chief Executive Officer Beth Houghton says the groups will distribute fresh food.She says these events are important to a lot of families. “Things like housing are getting more expensive, other things are getting more expensive, and while wages are moving up, they are not keeping up. Particularly for families with middle incomes or lower.”In addition, Houghton says a lot of kids rely on their school to provide meals for them. “The estimate is in Pinellas County, 1 in 8 kids are food insecure. It doesn’t mean they are starving, but it means on any given day they might miss a meal.”

“JWB is committed to ensuring no child goes hungry. We invest $4.2M in bulk food with the St. Pete Free Clinic, which then distributes to food banks and pantries across Pinellas County,” Houghton said.

According to the press release, each “family will receive a variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, proteins/meats, dairy, eggs, cereals, canned goods, and more – approximately 52+ pounds of food per family. A total of 21,000 pounds of food will be given away at each event, which equates to 126,000 pounds of food distributed across the six events when summer ends.”

Here is a list of all six summer food events: www.jwbpinellas.org/calendar/free-summer-food-for-families/. They are all from 9:00 a.m. until noon (while supplies last).