St. Armands Key Lutheran Church feeds neighbors in need

Ask and you shall receive. St. Armands Key Lutheran Church asked for 100 volunteers, and 125 showed up to package meals for Kids Against Hunger on Saturday, Feb. 11.

It was a communitywide turnout with representatives from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Sarasota, local school children and their parents, 19 national honor students from the Classical Academy of Sarasota, 26 residents from the Lido Shores Property Owners Association and several Longboat Key residents. 

In total, the group packaged enough meals to feed either 23,000 adults or 46,000 children. The packages were split between Gladiolus Food Pantry in Fort Myers and Feed Empty Little Tummies in Bradenton. 

Courtesy photo

“At (Feed Empty Little Tummies), they have people living in campers and people living in their cars,” Community Service Ministry Chair Karyn Hawksley Smith said. “This food will be very, very helpful to them. It’s amazing how much hunger there is right in our own backyard.” 

Gladiolus Food Pantry should’ve been inoperable after Hurricane Ian. The building was under 4 feet of water with roof damage. The van was destroyed, and the food went bad. The building smelled so rancid of rotten meat, volunteers couldn’t go inside for three weeks. 

“Now the only thing I’m missing is the computers, but I brought my laptop from work, and my assistant brought her laptop, so we’re open,” founder and Director Miriam Ortiz said. “We never stopped.” 

It was business as usual, just outside. The building has since been repaired, but the internet was only fixed two weeks ago. Normally, the pantry distributes groceries once a week. Until the end of January, it was open every day.   

Ortiz says it’s hard to keep up with the demand from donations alone. She’s having to buy a lot of peanut butter, jelly and eggs lately. The donation from the church was delivered and gone within a week. 

Founded in 2013, the pantry distributed 848,678 pounds of food in 2021 alone. Gladiolus also provides diapers and toilet paper. To help, visit GladiolusFoodPantry.org/donate.