Back in 1998, Deborah Morgan heard about a new organization called Palm Beach Harvest that collected leftover food and delivered it to soup kitchens and food banks.

She volunteered to serve as a transporter, picking up soon-to-be-discarded food from a Palm Springs Publix and driving it to a soup kitchen west of Boynton Beach. She worked two mornings a week with her daughter, Holly, strapped into a car seat.

“I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom and do something to give back to my community,” Morgan said.

She still transports food, but now she’s the executive director – one of two paid staff members at the non-profit organization, where donations are tax deductible.

The rest of the work is done by some 200 volunteers who move about 5 million pounds of food annually to more than 100 soup kitchens, food pantries, housing authorities and recovery centers throughout Palm Beach County.

Deborah has a rich agricultural background and was a commercial beekeeper for more than a decade. She is also an advisor to the United Farmers Alliance and has served on the Salvation Army Board of Directors for more than ten years.