On October 17th, Boca Helping Hands will celebrate the surpassing of a milestone once thought unreachable. The BHH team will celebrate recovering its one millionth pound of food in 2012. Fourteen years ago, a small group of committed citizens had a vision to serve those in need. Boca Helping Hands was born…offering hot meals and pantry bags of perishable and non-perishable groceries to local families. In the ensuing years, Boca Helping Hands has added programs that send food home to low income elementary school children on the weekend, provide limited financial assistance, and help the unemployed and underemployed find work. But the central program of Boca Helping Hands continues to be its soup kitchen and food pantry.
Over the past two years, food recovery has dramatically increased to keep pace with the rise in demand. Local restaurants (Capital Grille, Papa John’s Pizza, Seasons 52, Cheesecake Factory, Olive Garden and Chipotle) and local grocery stores (Whole Foods, Publix Supermarkets, Winn-Dixie, Target, and Wal-Mart) and even many bakeries (Starbuck’s, Panera, Einstein, Corner Bakery) now divert food that would have once been thrown out to Boca Helping Hands. With two refrigerated trucks and two cargo vans (all donated by local foundations) on the road six days a week, Boca Helping Hands has increased its food recovery from 424,000 pounds in 2010, to 833,000 pounds in 2011.
As of October 1st, the team at Boca Helping Hands had recovered 941,556 pounds of food…food that was distributed to local families in the form of a hot meal or a pantry bag of perishable and non-perishable groceries. With only 58,444 pounds to go to reach the milestone, BHH Director of Food and Warehouse Operations, Bill Harper is confident that the one millionth pound of food will be processed in the warehouse in the next two weeks.
Executive Director James S. Gavrilos adds: “Food recovery is a total community effort. We first need the donor…the caterer, grocery store, restaurant or bakery who understands that today in America, we throw out 135 billion pounds of food each year that is recoverable and usable! Then we have an amazing team of volunteers at Boca Helping Hands who go to these locations and pick up donations, or work in the warehouse weighing, sorting, boxing and storing the donations to ensure prompt use. Still other community volunteers spend time each day in the warehouse preparing pantry bags for distribution, or cooking a hot meal for the nearly 175 people who eat lunch every day at Boca Helping Hands. Still other volunteers handle the paperwork required to receive a pantry bag or check in families who have come for their weekly pantry bag of food. Other volunteers help clients get to the cars, move food from the warehouse to the food center and assist with this massive operation. When that one millionth pound of food enters our warehouse, a great many people can take credit.”
Kristin Bagonis, Regional Marketing Program Manager for Whole Foods explains their participation in food recovery: “At Whole Foods Market, we are passionate about serving the communities that support us. We are so happy to be a part of the food recovery program with Boca Helping Hands, but also feel it is our responsibility to take an active role in sustaining great organizations that strengthen our community. They are an amazing organization providing a foundation for those in need.”
On October 17th, Board Members, staff, volunteers, donors, contributors, food recovery partners, and local community leaders will gather at the warehouse door at 9:15 for the symbolic reception of the one millionth pound of food. For further information on food recovery at Boca Helping Hands or the celebration on October 17th, contact James S. Gavrilos at: Jgavrilos@bocahelpinghands.org.