Harry Chapin Food Bank is prepared to do whatever is needed to help ensure that Southwest Floridians will not go hungry during this unprecedented crisis.
We are holding a series of 12 drive-thru food distributions each week throughout our five-county footprint. Instead of having people we serve line up and then walk around our truck to receive food set out on tables, we are having people line up in their vehicles and pop their trunk.
Volunteers then fill the trunk with fresh produce and a pre-packaged kit of shelf-stable food, enough to feed a family of four for five days. This method minimizes contact and maximizes social distancing. We distributed over 100,000 pounds of fresh produce this week, an amount very close to a normal distribution of produce.
We are grateful to our incredible volunteers who distribute the food and those who continue to build the kits at our Fort Myers Distribution Center and our Collier County Center in Naples. Each kit costs $30 to make and our plan is to distribute 5,000 kits per week. Our cost for the kits is $600,000 monthly.
For a calendar of our drive-thru distributions, please go to harrychapinfoodbank.org and click on the coronavirus update. That will take you to a page with a list of links on the right-hand side to find food and other information. You can also sign up to volunteer or make a gift to help us in our coronavirus fight.
Here are this week’s drive-thru distributions:
Tuesday, April 7
10 a.m. to noon: Boys and Girls Club of Immokalee,1155 Roberts Ave W, Immokalee.
10 a.m. to noon: First Baptist Church, 130 Connecticut St, Fort Myers Beach.
Wednesday, April 8
10 a.m. to noon: Golden Gate Community Center, 4701 Golden Gate Pkwy, Naples.
10 a.m. to noon: Our Lady Queen of Heaven, 355 Bridge St, LaBelle.
1 to 3 p.m: Church of the Nazarene, 6781 Bayshore Rd., North Fort Myers.
Thursday, April 9
10 a.m. to noon: Bonita Lions Club,10346 Pennsylvania Ave, Bonita Springs.
10 a.m. to noon: Sacred Heart Church, 211 W Charlotte Ave, Punta Gorda.
Friday, April 10
10 a.m. to noon: Boys and Girls Club of Naples, 7500 Davis Blvd, Naples.
10 a.m. to noon: Caloosa Middle School, 610 S. Del Prado Blvd., Cape Coral.
10 a.m. to noon: Florida SouthWestern State College, 8099 College Parkway, Fort Myers.