November 25, 2013 - The Glades Initiative, Inc. has been addressing the challenges in food security in the Glades area of Palm Beach County for the last five years.  In collaboration with many Glades area partners, The Glades Initiative, Inc. developed a strategic plan for food security.  Many of the partners are local food pantries such as the Glades Area Pantry in Pahokee and CROS Ministries Lighthouse Pantry in Belle Glade. Also at the table were the Palm Beach County Food Bank and several churches that have food pantry ministries serving the hungry in the Glades area. In the midst of their strategic planning, the Glades Initiative launched The Glades Area Food Bank in January of 2012, and is now serving 9 Glades food pantries and 2 Glades on-site feeding centers that meet their quality standards for food services.

The current partnership between The Glades Initiative, Inc. and Feeding South Florida began innocently; through a positive Facebook comment by The Glades Initiative regarding an event Feeding South Florida participates in each June in Belle Glade called "Muck Fest." The Glades Initiative commented, "Thank you for your support of the Glades Community!" Feeding South Florida responded to the comment with a personal message, "We'd love to get more involved in the Glades."

That comment lead to a conference call between the leadership of both agencies. Feeding South Florida was invited to come out to the Glades, and meet with their Glades area partners (food pantries that receive food from them) at The Glades Initiative, where they could introduce their new leadership including CEO Paco Velez, discuss changes they are making, and allow the opportunity for their partners to offer feedback on what's working and what's not working in their food system. One of the things that The Glades Initiative does best is bring groups together to identify barriers or issues within the health and human system of care and collaboratively identify solutions to these issues. That's precisely what happened at this meeting held on August 9, 2013.

 Because of our geographical isolation from the resources of the coast, one  of the biggest challenges in the Glades system of care is transportation. Each of these small food pantries had to travel over 100 miles each week to Feeding South Florida's Ft. Lauderdale and Coastal Palm Beach facility to pick up their share of food. The local pantries expended large amounts on gas, along with the wear and tear on their vehicles. Many potential ideas were discussed, and Feeding South Florida left the meeting promising they would follow-up with a solution. A couple months later, we heard back from Sari Vatske, Feeding South Florida's Vice President of Community Relations. She had good news and wanted to bring all their partners together again at The Glades Initiative to announce their proposition.

On November 9, 2013, Paco Velez from Feeding South Florida introduced the Glades partners to the new partnership with WellCare. WellCare has generously donated funds to support one year of transportation costs to deliver food supplies to Feeding South Florida's Glades network. This is fantastic news for the Glades. This partnership contributes to The Glades Initiative's mission of improving the coordination and effectiveness of the health and human service delivery system in the Glades.  Thanks to the work of The Glades Initiative, Feeding South Florida, WellCare, and the Feeding South Florida Glades network, our transportation barriers are now resolved. More importantly, the ones who benefit most are the low families who are in need of food assistance.