Hundreds of cars were lined up early Thursday morning (9/28) to pick up free food at the Leon County Sheriff’s Department. It was a joint effort by the department and the statewide Farm Share program.
Farm Share’s Dave Reynolds said there was more than seven tons of free food and toiletry items.
“The fresh produce is from farms around the state as well as other donors: cold storage donors and facilities that store product for grocery stores.”
Among the volunteer distributors, well-known Tallahassee civil rights attorney Ben Crump who saw the effort as a crime reduction tool.
“When you confront hunger, you see the crime rates go down,” he said, citing the results a recent study.
And Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil saw his deputies doing future Farm Share distributions on a regular basis.
“We’ll actually take it to those neighborhoods in our community that are in need,” he said, adding this should also improve the relationship between those neighborhoods and local law enforcement.
