District 13 Broward Outreach Center Report
By: Emily Jo Freeman
On November 22, 2011 fifteen members of the 4-H District 13 Council volunteered at the Broward outreach center to feed people who don’t have as much food. I honestly didn’t know what to expect going into this, I had never done something like this before. It was a great experience to be able to help fight poverty. When we first arrived we had to get dressed up in a plastic apron, gloves, and a hair net, for sanitary reasons. I wasn’t too much of a fan of this. My pride was soon swallowed after seeing the reactions of people receiving the food. Some of us who volunteered helped clean tables, others served salad and bread, while still others handed out drinks or trays of food. We also had someone passing out Thanksgiving cards that the Council made the meeting prior. I helped by passing out the trays of food to the people sitting at the tables. We fed them in two shifts: the first was women and families, while the second was only men. In all about 100 or so people showed up There were mothers and children who typically don’t have very much to eat, but thanks to this wonderful program get to have a meal. One woman stood out to me, while most people would take the food and seem to just savor every bite; I would watch as this woman received her tray, turn around, and in the next second, she was finished. I remember passing out the plates and thinking to myself, “How would I deal with this if I were in their shoes?” It really made me think about how blessed I am to be able to eat a meal, or have a snack whenever I want. An experience that I didn’t know how to react to, ended up being one that has made me extremely thankful.
The Lee County 4-H Trail Blazers club recently took part in the “Youth against Poverty” Initiative, a multi-state 4-H Day of Service Project. The 4-H Trail Blazers built raised garden beds and planted vegetables for urban and underprivileged youth at a local Preschool in Fort Myers. The vegetables grown from these gardens will be the only fresh produce some of these youngsters have available to them. In addition to planting a nutritiousgarden, the Trail Blazers pulled weeds and spruced up the onsite preschool and adjacent local Soup Kitchen with new flowers, bushes and mulch. The new landscaping will bring a fresh look and offer hope and cheer to those most affected by poverty in our community. By joining together with other 4-Her’s across the state and country we hope to make an impact on our local community. The 4-H Trail Blazers would like to thank Forestry Resources of Fort Myers for their generous support of this project. 
