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Collier Harvest is a chapter of USA
Harvest operating in Collier County, Florida.
Our function is to recover excess or sale-dated food from area
supermarkets, fruit stands
and restaurants and deliver it to local agencies that use it to
feed the hungry.
Our organization relies entirely on the goodwill of individual
and corporate volunteers. If you or someone you know may be interested
in participating in this rewarding volunteer opportunity, please
contact us.
Collier Harvest is dedicated to the elimination of hunger in Naples
and surrounding areas. We are one of several local food relief
agencies located across the US that is modeled after USA Harvest.
Utilizing the protections granted to relief agencies by the Good
Samartian Act, our organization provides a safe and reliable way
for excess food to be redistributed in our community so that no
one goes hungry.
If you would like to learn more about our mission or if you are
interested in helping us fulfill it, please contact
us.
Collier Harvest Collier Harvest is an all-volunteer
organization that transports donated foods from those
who have it and do not want it to those who want it but cannot
afford it.
This means that businesses that have overages, or outdated but
perfectly edible food, arrange for a Collier Harvest
volunteer to collect the food and deliver it, free
of charge, to pre-approved charities that assist the needy of Collier
and Southern Lee Counties.
Our volunteers spend approximately two hours per week collecting food
from a donor and delivering it in their own vehicle to one or more
recipient agencies. Our management team matches this
transport volunteer's availability and vehicle size
to the needs of a specific donor and recipient agency. A transport volunteer may, of course, accept more than one route
per week
or work with a partner in order to have the flexibility that an
alternating
schedule offers.
The majority of our deliveries are scheduled in the mornings between
8:00 and 10:00 a.m. However, there are also afternoon,
evening, weekend, and group activities available.
In addition, one-time day or evening opportunities exist.
Such activities could involve filling in for another volunteer
as a backup transporter or they may fall under the "Special Events" category.
Some of our food drives and some of our booth work qualify as Special
Event Activities.
When we first began in 1992, we had about a dozen volunteers serving
approximately fourteen relief agencies in the Greater Naples area.
Today we have scores of regular volunteers and serve over 60 agencies.
During the past decade we have delivered over 8 million pounds
of food to dozens of hunger relief agencies throughout southwest
Florida.
The biggest event of
the year occurs on the second weekend in
May during the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) day.
On this occasion hundreds of volunteers pitch in with postal workers
and corporate sponsors from around the region to deliver non-perishable
food items to local relief agencies. Annually we collect over 200,000
pounds of food in one weekend during our NALC food drive!
To learn more about recent and upcoming events,
please see our newsletter.
Collier Harvest operates under both Section 501 (c)(3) of the
Internal Revenue Service tax code of 1986 and the 1996 Good Samaritan
Act, which protects our volunteers from any liability resulting
from our operation. However, all transport volunteers are required
to have insurance for automobiles that transport food. Due to liability
issues, neither Collier Harvest nor our volunteers may deliver
food directly to any individuals, for this reason we work directly
with agencies and groups who have a 501-C 3 status. In addition,
we require that all of our food be passed along to the needy at
no charge to the individual. To learn more about the commitments
required to be a Collier Harvest volunteer, please review our Agreement
to Serve.
To function effectively to better the needs of
southwest Florida a local agency must rely on the leadership of
well focused board members. Collier Harvest is fortunate and thankful
to have the guidance of the following individuals who give freely
of their time and talents:
Dick Bourne - Vice President JoAnn Paradis
Nancy Bourne Jim Paradis - President
Gary Davis Michelle Paradis - Secretary
Bob Deeks Anne Raker
Tom Fagan John Raker
Jim Iacovino Jim Rice
Chuck Kelly - Attorney Tom Ryan
Bert Paradis(Emeritus) Denise Shrock
Executive Director: Ingrid Parry (239)455-FOOD (3663)
Volunteer Coordinator: Carol Harris (239)-775-0443 or (239) 280-6378
Newsletter Editor: Mike Harris (239)352-2318
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