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Feeding Southwest Floridians Who Have Lost Income Because of Red Tide

Mobile Food Pantry
Harry Chapin Food Bank of Southwest Florida
Mobile Food Pantry

Some southwest Floridians are being economically affected by the ongoing red tide bloom, and one area nonprofit is doing its part to help them. The Harry Chapin Food Bank serves five counties in Southwest Florida by collecting and distributing donated food to more than 150 partner agencies that provide direct services to those in need, like church food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, disaster relief agencies and more.

They provide food for about 28,000 individuals each week. Starting this Friday the food bank will be setting up a mobile pantry on Fort Myers Beach to help people who have lost income because of the effects of red tide get enough to eat. We're joined by its President and CEO Richard LeBer.

Copyright 2018 WGCU

Julie Glenn is the host of Gulf Coast Live. She has been working in southwest Florida as a freelance writer since 2007, most recently as a regular columnist for the Naples Daily News. She began her broadcasting career in 1993 as a reporter/anchor/producer for a local CBS affiliate in Quincy, Illinois. After also working for the NBC affiliate, she decided to move to Parma, Italy where she earned her Master’s degree in communication from the University of Gastronomic Sciences. Her undergraduate degree in Mass Communication is from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.
Mike Kiniry is producer of Gulf Coast Live, and co-creator and host of the WGCU podcast Three Song Stories: Biography Through Music. He first joined the WGCU team in the summer of 2003 as an intern while studying Communication at Florida Gulf Coast University.