Palm Beach Harvest is straining at the seams to deliver its promise: Meeting The Need to Feed

Deborah Morgan, Palm Beach Harvest’s Executive Director, offers her insights:

I’m reminded of how I came to Palm Beach Harvest. Back in 1998, a chance encounter changed my life. I was interviewing first-graders to find out what kinds of foods they were eating at home. One little boy was very reluctant to talk to me. He seemed shy and withdrawn. I asked, “What did you have for breakfast?” He looked at the floor. “I didn’t eat breakfast.” “Why didn’t you didn’t eat?” (I thought, did you just get up too late?) After a pause, he answered, “It wasn’t my turn to eat today.” I decided then that something had to be done to help him and the countless other children and adults who go without food right here in our own back yard. Palm Beach Harvest gave me that opportunity. Back then, PBH was a grass-roots, all-volunteer organization, a chapter of USA Harvest. We simply transported donated surplus food to local agencies who distributed it to hungry people through food kitchens providing meals or free grocery pickups. Since then both our donor base and the number of hungry people have grown tremendously, and we get large-scale donations that must be transported and refrigerated. Reluctantly, we’ve changed our scope and need funding for trucks, drivers, gas and refrigerated storage. So please, donate time and, if you can, your dime. It isn’t right for our neighbors’ children to go without food, but right next door, they do.

Stan Curtis, Founder USA Harvest:

Tops Volunteer Appreciation Day Event

USA Harvest founder, Stan Curtis, spoke to Palm Beach Harvest volunteers during our Volunteer Appreciation Day activities on April 28th. Today USA Harvest, which began in Louisville, Kentucky more than 15 years ago, is an international organization with more than 118 chapters helping feed the hungry throughout the world.

Curtis is a self-described fanatic, which he defines as “ someone who won’t change their mind and can’t change the subject.” His seemingly endless enthusiasm is contagious. Though we didn’t catch his every word, we hope you enjoy the excerpts from his talk we have included below:

Somebody said that the greatest of all evil and the worst of any crime in America is poverty, and going about this country as I do, I have never met anyone who volunteered to be poor.

Speaking to a third grade class of children some 16½ years ago - not knowing that you could not keep their attention very long - I panicked when I saw after 8½ minutes that they were not going to listen to me anymore and I said, "does anybody in the room know what the word poverty means?" And it calmed them for a second and they froze and looked at each other and then they went back to putting their fingers into every orifice they had and I said , "Does anyone know what the word poor means?" And a young girl stood up almost instantly and said, "doesn't that mean not having something you're supposed to have?" 

Folks, you know the inspiration that you give --- You know, 1.7 million pounds of food is over eight 747s full of food. You can envision that a whole lot quicker than 1.7 million unless you say 1.7 million dollars -- we can all envision that or at least feel something good about it. Far too many people these days live on the outskirts of hope. some because of their poverty, some even because of their color, but now a days all too many because of their birth. And I will tell you that the children of this nation, the mothers and fathers of this country and the people who came to this country as the country of opportunity are looking for something that you and I grew up with--and that is something called "We the People." Harvest has never been anything but "we the people." That's all its ever been. That's what we're designed to be. 

We are in 122 cities in America. We have 114,000 wonderful volunteers-- the backbone of this organization. We are in seven foreign countries. ..Thank you for filling me with pride, thank you for filling me with emotion, thank you for filling me with the determination to keep going. Also allow me to say thank you for inspiring me because when I started this journey I knew that somebody would be with me, I didn't know how many some bodies would be with me. I just knew that somebody would be with me and each time that I come down to Palm Beach Harvest and to Collier County Harvest, and to Ocala and Gainesville and to Jacksonville and to Daytona where there are two Harvest chapters the only think I can feel is pride when I land at that airport knowing that there are a group of people in here 20 strong, 200 strong, 2000 strong, two million strong who know what it's like to give to somebody. 

With Palm Beach Harvest, each of you are the essence of Harvest everyday. Each one of you who has a name tag on, each one of you who has a Palm Beach Harvest shirt on-- you are the essence of what this organization is. We don't feed black people, we don't feed White people. We feed Americans. We don't feed democrats, we don't feed republicans, we don't feed communists. We feed Americans.

And I will tell you that I have been on been on for the past 17½ years is a journey. For a story will be told one day -- not about me - but about the people who were on that journey with me and you guys are on that journey. So, in your everyday life it is your responsibility, it is the responsibility of your ability to lead, to tell somebody else about the journey of Harvest, to ask them if they know where there's some food being thrown away, to ask them if they've got an hour or two hours or a half hour that they can spend taking food from where it is to where it isn't.

You know the little boy that Deborah just mentioned about it not being his day to eat? Some things that might interest you:

Nationally, public schools serve more food on Fridays and on Mondays than any other day of the week. That's because in the public schools in America 49% of the children are on assisted lunch programs. So, where do you think they eat when there is no school? Well, it wasn't his turn to eat. There's more need for food in the summer than in the holidays, than in winter. There is no school.. But the thing that really confuses me is those 49% and the 51% are supposed to be our future. You guys were all kids at one time or another. Well, maybe Walt wasn't, but the rest of you were. Those are supposed to be the leaders of tomorrow but I would suggest that nobody deserves to go hungry in this country.

And the funny thing about what you are doing everyday is that you are doing exactly what the bureaucratic system has not been able to do and that is to deliver food everyday. The bureaucracy has gotten to the point where they have created a hesitation in getting food from the donor to the recipient being the person who runs the mission the recipient being the person who has to eat the food. Because there is plenty of food in America for those less fortunate. You've never seen a bureaucracy dissolve itself. George Herbert Walker Bush, the first President Bush, said once that any definition of a successful life in America today includes service to others. George Walker Bush, the second President Bush, said, "where there are poor in need there is duty." I doesn't matter what's in front of you nor what's behind you. It only matters what's within you. And, everyday, my friends, you have a responsibility to ask that next person, "Hey, could you help us deliver some food?" Cause you know what it's like when you give it to people who need it.

Today we're blessed with the rain that I understand you need in south Florida. you're blessed with a mission you care about everyday, your blessed with Leigh and Debbie and Gerry, Suzanne, Susie, and Chris and the leadership of Palm Beach Harvest has, and I am blessed to be here.

www.USAHarvest.com

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