August 20, 2004
Wauchula, Florida - Muey importunate. Very important. That’s how Maria Rivera describes the food program at the Faith Temple Church of God in Wauchula.
Rivera’s family of five has depended on the church since Hurricane Charlie.
MARIA RIVERA:
“We wouldn’t have nothing to eat.”
Pastor Wendell Smith says he is concerned there isn’t enough food to feed the hurricane victims who depend on his church.
PASTOR WENDELL SMITH:
“The first day I went out I wept over this city, because I pastor here, I was born and raised here.”
Pastor Johnny Strickland is also moved to tears about the lack of food in Wauchula, but Strickland is also angry.
PASTOR JOHNNY STRICKLAND:
“There‘s canned good and food available and everybody is crying on national television saying don’t send food, don’t send water, send money people can’t eat money.”
Strickland says he can help restock the food bank in Hardee County with more than a thousand cases of canned goods he has for needy in Hillsborough County. However there are rules that say government food must stay in the county for which it was designated.
STRICKLAND:
“Your tax dollar paid for that food. It is USDA government food. It’s tax dollars that buy it. They’re asking us to help but our hands are tied.”
And while both the state and federal departments of agriculture are saying the rule can’t be broken that would allow food to be shipped from one county to another county, there are people here in hurricane ravaged Hardee County that are going hungry while there are warehouses and trucks in both Hillsborough and Polk Counties filled with food.
STRICKLAND:
“I don’t know where the bureaucracy breaks a line, but somewhere we’ve got break this line that if there is a disaster, regardless of where it comes it comes into the needed areas to feed people who are hungry.”
But federal and state officials who admit food is needed in Hardee County say it can’t be shipped from Hillsborough. They say if the food was sent to Wauchula it would hurt the needy at the Tampa Housing Authority that Strickland’s program serves.
STRICKLAND:
“They have food. We’re only subsidizing their food, we’re not there feed them, and we’re only subsidizing them. So why can’t we share some of this subsidized food with these people who need it more than them.”
That’s a question hungry hurricane victim would like answer to, but aren’t getting. The state says it must enforce the federal law, but a spokesman for the Florida department of agriculture says the feds could change their rules if they wanted.
http://www.wtsp.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=9614