The food distribution helped residents like Hunter get a prepared meal. And the program also provided an income to restaurant workers who had been laid off from their regular season jobs because of the pandemic.
Rachel McCandless, the Health and Nutrition Director for Feeding Northeast Florida, said the Project Share prepared meals program was a pandemic response effort that was only supposed to last for 10 weeks but was extended for nine months.
The Project Share program allowed Feeding Northeast Florida to hire restaurant workers, some of who were laid off due to the pandemic, as independent contractors and paid their salaries through private donations and through contributions by philanthropists.