Harvest Drive volunteers pack, deliver 4,600 meals through annual Thanksgiving Drive

DAVIE, Fla. – A weeks-long food collection drive culminated in hundreds of community volunteers packing and delivering meals to families throughout Broward County during the days leading up to Thanksgiving.

Every November for the last 27 years, Harvest Drive Florida partners with Broward County Schools and community organizations in a county-wide food collection drive that provides nearly 4,600 families a week’s worth of groceries and a Thanksgiving meal.

“In our 14 sites, we’ve probably had about 4 to 5,000 kids participate in this over the two-week period,” Renee Herman, founder of Harvest Drive Florida, said. “Broward County is our community. We need to take care of our kids and our schools.”

According to its website, Harvest Drive is a “volunteer-driven grassroots program designed to improve the lives of food-insecure families in Broward County.”

Community organizers set up camp at Western High School in Davie, Florida, where they filled grocery bags to then be loaded and distributed throughout the community.

“Western High has 3,200 kids. If everyone brought in one item, 3,200. If everyone brought in two … keep doing the math," Harvest Drive program coordinator Amy Freund said. “Everyone gets to be a part of this kindness and everyone gets to be a part of this massive whole."

In addition to its annual Thanksgiving Drive, Harvest Drive works year-round throughout the community. Other key initiatives include providing underprivileged Broward County students back-to-school backpacks and food drives that pack and deliver more than 40,000 pounds of food year-round to qualified recipients.

To learn more about Harvest Drive Florida, visit http://harvestdriveflorida.com/.