MIRAMAR, Fla. – A food distribution has been going on for months at Miramar Regional Park during the pandemic, but Thursday’s priority was healthcare workers.
The gates opened at 7 a.m. Julie Hall, a cardiac sonographer for Memorial Health, was first in line.
“I got here at 5:34,” said Hall. “It’s necessary for everyone because sometimes we don’t have time or we get furloughed, so it’s definitely helpful for us.”
The partnership between the city of Miramar and Feeding South Florida had special hours early for healthcare workers on the frontlines of the pandemic battle before the distribution opened to the public.
“We want to give back to them because often times they are working 12-, 14-hour shifts and they don’t have the time sometimes to go out and get food regularly for their own families,” City of Miramar Mayor Wayne Messam said. “We want to make sure that we thank them and provide them a little token of appreciation.”
Lovely-joy Joseph works in the neonatal intensive care unit at Memorial Hospital.
"I'm scared to go out to the store because of COVID," Joseph said.
The drive-thru accessibility of the Miramar food distribution made her feel comfortable and safe because all she had to do was pop the trunk of her car and didn’t have to get out, she said.
“They’ve worked so hard. They don’t have time to get off and come through these lines. However, we’ve done this before, and we realize the need is still there. It’s impacting our healthcare workers just as much as it is our community,” Angela Lucas-Mumford, assistant to the city manager for Miramar, said.
After the healthcare workers made their way through the line, it did open up to the public. Hundreds of families were able to get food Thursday.
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