SARASOTA (WSNN) – Dozens of cars line up to get something to eat at a mass food distribution site in Sarasota, Saturday morning. Plus, they get a dose of something else.
“I am so thankful, thank you so much,” Manatee County resident, Pilar Komishane said.
Komishane is one out of about a hundred families who came out to the All Faiths Food Bank’s mass food distribution drive to help provide for her mom.
“She’s having a difficult time,” Komishane said. “She went through divorce, PTSD, pandemic, losing housing, so I really appreciate programs like this. It helped me support my elderly mom to this program and everybody else in this community.”
All Faiths Food hosts this mobile food drive on the fourth Saturday of every month at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall parking lot.
“We’re out here because there is still a great need in the community,” All Faiths Food Bank’s Field Registration Coordinator Carolina Shin said. “And the impact of COVID still being present, and now especially with school being out of session, we have a lot more families facing day-to-day hunger.”
From wheels to on foot, anyone who was hungry was able to come. It’s a monthly drive that will run through October. But it wasn’t just food being offered…
“We just wanted to provide convenient access to getting vaccinated,” Shin said. “So, kill two birds with one stone. You can get the food and get vaccinated; one or the other.”
With the help of the Sarasota County Health Department and regional coalition Shots in Arms, COVID-19 vaccinations were administered to a handful of people.
“People who right now are very sick or even admitted to the hospital with COVID are those who are unvaccinated,” CenterPlace Health Senior Physician Dr. Washington Hill said.
Dr. Hill says there aren’t enough shots in arms. So, his message to you:
“We need people to stop listening to the myths and get vaccinated,” Dr. Hill said.
All vaccine recipients received a 20-dollar Publix gift card.
The next All Faiths’ food drive at the Van Wezel will be August 28th. There are other distribution sites throughout Sarasota County. For more information. If you go to their website and select ‘Food Finder,’ the full schedule is there.
