Verdego Garden Center, Palm Coast Government, School Board and County Mobilize for Local Food Aid

Verdego’s effort, unique for its scope and generosity among local businesses, is part of a larger effort by private, public and charitable organizations to distribute or collect food and cash for community pantries and address growing needs for food among local families.

Palm Coast government is preparing a very large food distribution of its own, with a goal of providing the equivalent of 5,000 families of four with a week’s worth of groceries on May 2. County government is planning to lend its hand in local efforts, providing logistical support for Grace Community, which itself continues to provide groceries to upwards of 1,300 families a week. And the Flagler County School Board continues to provide daily food distributions to any child 18 or younger (Monday through Thursday) at four school locations and five community locations.

The school district’s meal packets amount to a breakfast and lunch each day. It has distributed a total of 22,373 such food packets since March 23, and will continue to do so through the end of the school year. Those distributions are taking place daily from 10 a.m. to noon at Flagler Palm Coast High School, the Wadsworth Elementary-Buddy Taylor Middle School cafeteria, Bunnell Elementary, Indian Trails Middle School, the Versie Lee Community Center near Carver Center in Bunnell, Hidden Trail Community Center in west Flagler, the Bulow RV Resort, Flagler Technical Institute’s building on State Road A1A in the Hammock, and the Espanola Community Center.

Palm Coast and the county are coordinating donations or logistics, and the school board is adapting its food program’s energies to the emergency. Verdego, for its part, is dipping in its own coffer to make its donation possible.

“In the Verdego organization there are many passionate people that give their time and resources to our community every day and thought that a great way to contribute to the community would be to help feed the ones in need during this pandemic,” Verdego owner T.J. McNitt said.

His team researched what organizations were best positioned to help and concluded that Grace Community was. With its weekend food distributions Saturdays and Sundays on Education Way off U.S. 1, which drew 800 people even before the crisis (they now draw about 1,300), and with its food drops on the west side of the county, Grace Community has the experience and a large corps of volunteers to manage large-scale food distributions. Flagler County government learned that lesson earlier this month when it attempted its own food drops, but was overwhelmed by demand and a lack of organization.

“Just to be clear we will be donating 100% of sales revenue and not just the proceeds from the sales,” McNitt said. “Our business is absolutely feeling the effects of this pandemic and our overall sales will take a significant hit in the immediate future.” Nevertheless, he said, Verdego is still classified as an essential business, allowing it to continue operations. “My family and I, as well as our Verdego family, have been blessed for so many years from this community and the local support that we all felt this was the biggest need for our community right now.”

The company’s generosity faces challenges: there is no such thing as normal business right now. There are social distance requirements, implemented at the Garden Center as well. That limits the influx of customers at any one time. The company had to organize its own response to the pandemic, such as staggered start times for crews, staggered office hours for office staff, work from home solutions for those that could do so or those with underlying conditions that makes them more susceptible to the disease.

“Normally we would staff up for an event like this and be prepared to immediately assist everyone, but we also don’t want the public or our staff to be at a higher risk with more interaction,” McNitt said. “We kindly ask anyone who is wanting to purchase items for their yards while giving back to the community to be patient and understanding with this event. Being a retail establishment it always seems that people come in waves so if I could give one piece of advice for anyone who wants to shop and not be around a larger crowd then come mid morning or mid afternoon. We will also be taking phone orders for certain items during this time so that is always an option.” (Verdego’s phone number: (386) 437-3122.)

McNitt said that even though the goal is $20,000, he hopes to reach $30,000. His own employees were first to donate when he sent out an email informing them of the plans.

“We were very busy today,” Verdego’s Allynne Jones, a 17-year employee in charge of marketing, said today around closing time. “We’re very happy, very delighted with the turnout so far and hope other people will come out and help us support the food bank.”

Palm Coast has set a $30,000 goal for its own Feed Palm Coast initiative. After just 48 hours it had already raised $18,380.

Palm Coast Mayor Milissa Holland, who has stressed the importance of continuing to stay at home and maintaining social distancing recommendations, sees the food distribution as a way to lessen pressures on local families. “This is a tremendous effort for our community,” Holland said earlier today during the city’s virtual town hall. “Our residents need this now more than ever. We’re looking to supply a week’s worth of groceries for a family of four. That will go a long way, Our goal is to feed 5,000 families on that day. That will have a tremendous amount of positive impact [for] those that are in dire need right now.”

The city’s food distribution is scheduled for May 2 at both Palm Coast City Hall (160 Lake Avenue in Town Center) and at Parkview Baptist Church, 5435 Belle Terre Parkway in Palm Coast. The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office will be regulating traffic. Both locations are currently accepting food donations and will continue to do so until May 1, every day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Examples of acceptable donation items include:

• Canned protein (chicken or tuna)
• Chicken or tuna helper
• Peanut butter
• Jelly / Jam
• Rice
• Beans
• Beef stew or canned dumplings
• Pasta
• Tomato sauce (can or plastic jars only)
• Protein bars / cereal bars / pop tarts
• Oatmeal / Cereal
• Soup
• Mac & cheese
• Juice boxes

Flagler County Emergency Management Chief Jonathan Lord summed up the county’s experience with its food drop last week when he briefed the county commission on Monday.

“On the recent topic of food distribution,” Lord said, “last week we did a food pick-up drop-off type thing at Hidden Trails Community Center out in Daytona North as well as at Palm Coast High School. That went well, but it could have been done better. We did our best to kind of gauge what we would receive food wise from the food pantry site as well as try to gauge what our community demand was. Unfortunately our delivery of food was well below what we expected and our demand from our community was well above what we expected.”

So the county spoke with Pastor Charles Silano, who runs Grace Community Food Pantry. “Any further food distribution type operation will be coordinated through him and by him and his team as they are truly experts in the field, and the county will pretty much become more of an enhancement support to his processes for the procurement of additional foodstuffs and any labor support we may need to enhance his operations.” Lord added it was better for the county to provide support for an existing system rather than create its own.

The private and public efforts underscore a need that will not soon diminish as stay-home recommendations continue–and as economic hardships mount even if stay-home recommendations are gradually lifted: the economy is not expected to restart with the flip of a switch. Organizations have mobilized in response.

“Giving back to this community is something we will always do as the community has provided us with so much,” Verdego’s McNitt said. “This will, hopefully, be our largest single donation to any charity in the history of Verdego, but we certainly won’t stop there, as we believe there are always people in need. As we all know, hunger is frequently a problem in communities but has been exacerbated due to this pandemic. Verdego will be participating in a joint initiative with a local church to assist in the Palm Coast initiative. Palm Coast has not reached out directly to us, that I am aware of, but we are huge advocates of this type of initiative and would be happy to assist.”

Verdego Garden Center is at 4801 U.S. 1 in Bunnell, (386) 437-3122.

The City of Palm Coast and Parkview Church are accepting food donations from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. until Friday, May 1, at these two locations:
City Hall — 160 Lake Ave., Palm Coast.
Parkview Church — 5435 Belle Terre Pkwy, Palm Coast.
These same two locations will be the points of distribution for residents on Saturday, May 2, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Grace Community Food Pantry, 245 Education Way, Bunnell
Mail checks to: 5400 East Hwy 100, Palm Coast, Florida 32164
386-586-2653 www.gracecommunityfoodpantry.com
Hours: Saturdays 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Sundays 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.