Hastings Food Giveaway on Saturday morning

Historic City News was informed that this Saturday, January 6, 2018, from 9:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon, the east coast charitable produce packing house, Farm Share Inc, will hold the “Hastings Food Giveaway” at the W.E. Harris Community Center located at 400 Harris Street in Hastings.

Food is first come, first served, while supplies last. Farm Share was established in 1991, with an overarching goal to distribute food to agencies such as soup kitchens, homeless shelters, food banks, and churches without fees of any kind.

“While most groups focus on canned and processed food donations, our mission remains focused on re-packing fresh, nutritious fruits and vegetables that would otherwise be thrown away,” a spokesperson for Farm Share told local reporters. “It costs more to handle this kind of food, but fresh produce is simply more nutritious than canned, and there is a nearly unlimited supply of it being thrown out every year.”

Attending Saturday’s event will be Florida Senator for District 7 Travis Hutson and State Representative for District 24, Paul Renner. These appearances have triggered one group of St Johns County activists to organize a demonstration outside the event to protest what they call a “feel-good photo opportunity” as they begin their 2018 election campaigning.

“Are you kidding us? We will have a lot of questions for our elected officials,” a spokeswoman for the group Indivisible St Johns said. “This is the agricultural oasis of St Johns County. Many of the recipients Saturday probably harvested the food being distributed in the first place.”

Some of the questions that will appear on the signs that protesters will be carrying include:

• How about a sufficient state minimum wage so your constituents don’t have to line up for free food?
• How about cracking down on mistreatment of migrant workers?
• How about pushing for expanded Medicaid?
• How about a real grocery store nearby once the residents make enough to shop there?
• How about decent, safe and affordable housing for the residents of Hastings, Flagler Estates and Armstrong?
• How about fixing the infrastructure in Hastings, including dredging Deep Creek?
• How about resources for the public schools in the SW part of the county instead of diverting our tax dollars to for-profit charter and religious schools?