“It is my passion that no child should go to bed hungry in this country, and this has expanded to families, seniors and more,” said St. Matthias, Clermont, parishioner Keith Whitacre. That passion led him to found Food Providers of South Lake in 2019.

Food Providers of South Lake is a group of 40 people from churches, food pantries and businesses as well as individual volunteers, all working together to share, collaborate, communicate and organize activities and actions to reduce food insecurity in their community. About 3.3 million residents in Florida are food insecure, according to a study by Feeding Florida. Florida is ranked 10th in food insecurity and 8th in child food insecurity.

“Our mission is to eliminate hunger in our community,” Whitacre said. “We offer hope as we assist our neighbors in need and guide them toward self-sufficiency. We help in an organized way. We want to ensure that everyone who needs the food receives it. There was so much duplication in the past, with many food banks delivering food to the same apartment complexes.”

Whitacre prepares for food drops. | Photo Credit: Food Providers of South Lake

To help reach his goal, Whitacre is now participating in gleanings with the Society of Saint Andrew, an organization he learned about from his sister-in-law.

“She was at a farmer’s market and saw their information,” he explained. “She thought I would be interested in them, and I was.”

Gleaning is a practice whereby farms allow organizations to come and pick surplus fruit and vegetables, akin to the prescribed Old Testament practice highlighted in the biblical story of Naomi, Ruth and Boaz (see Ruth 2). SoSA organizes gleaners and provides the food they pick at no cost to nonprofits that help the food insecure.

Since 1979, The Society of Saint Andrew has rescued food from commercial farms. It is America’s oldest and largest gleaning organization. Established in 1995, the Florida office has gleaned from Immokalee to the Panhandle. SoSA operates in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, Delaware and Maryland. The organization’s mission is to bring people together to harvest and share healthy food, reduce food waste and build caring communities by offering nourishing food to hungry neighbors at no cost.

Agencies are encouraged to send their volunteers to gleaning events to harvest and transport food directly to their facilities. They can also coordinate with SoSA for pickup dates. The gleaned food stays in the community, with 98.7% of the food rescued ending up at agency doors.

“There is extra food for several reasons,” explained Whitacre. “They opted not to harvest the fruit and vegetables that aren’t the right size or shape for grocery stores. They harvested, and this is what was missed.”

“SoSA sets up these gleaning dates with farms in Florida, and they are very fluid because we usually come in right after the crop is harvested,” he added. “Farmers may call a few days in advance, depending on the weather and ripeness of the crop.”

Some of the corn Whitacre gleaned in June | Photo Credit: Society of Saint Andrew-Florida

Whitacre attended his first gleaning event last month and harvested three or four pallets of corn. “I dropped them off at The Neighborhood Center of South Lake (formerly Faith Neighborhood Center), which St. Matthias has supported for several years,” he said.

He has since participated in two more gleaning events and plans to do more when the growing season starts again, he said. “Florida’s growing season is from September to June,” he explained. “I have a few months to get more people interested in this.”

Whitacre is now seeking volunteers at his parish to participate in gleaning events with SoSA. “My goal is to have a champion in each church, business, nonprofit, civic group, etc., to promote these events.”

He hopes to make this an outreach of St. Matthias and plans to present it to the Outreach Committee.

Since 2019, Whitacre has made 70 food drops in South Lake County. “I just want to feed more people,” he said.

For more information, please go to foodprovidersofsouthlake.org, endhunger.org and fnclake.org.