MIAMI – Farm Share, Florida’s largest food bank, said they are nowhere near prepared to handle the aftermath of a hurricane, should a severe storm hit.
The food bank is also one of the state’s major disaster relief organizations, providing millions of pounds worth of food and supplies when natural disasters hit.
Right now, donations are at an all-time low, the cost of food is rising and supply chain issues are still causing shortages.
“I can look through the warehouse now which is very, very rare in cases. These stacks are usually all the way up to the roof and these lines are usually filled,” said Gil Zepeda with Farm Share.
Farm Share said their warehouses have never been this empty in the middle of hurricane season.
“If for some case or another there is a hurricane that comes through the state of Florida, we are going to be in trouble,” said Zepeda.
The food bank donated 1.7 million pounds of food to impacted families when hurricane Irma hit and 2.2 million pounds of food during hurricane Michael. That equals out to 58 semi-trucks full of food.
“I don’t have that food right now,” said Farm Share CEO Stephen Shelley.
“Even if we were to get all the food from all the farm share warehouses in the state, we would not have enough food right now to operate for a major storm,” explained Zepeda.
Food banks across the country are facing the same problems. Shelley said if a hurricane hits, he may be forced to make an extremely difficult decision.
“I’ve never had the supply of food be this low. I’ve never had the issue where I’d have to choose between responding to a natural disaster or providing food for normal food insecurity purposes,” he said.
The problems Farm Share is facing aren’t likely to disappear any time soon. That’s why they, along with other food banks across our state, are in the process of drafting a letter that will be sent to Florida leaders, asking them for relief.