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Community asks St. Johns Commissioners to remember a food bank when divvying up federal funds

St. Johns County, like many local governments, is trying to decide who gets federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act.

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — The COVID-19 pandemic affected so many people financially and still does. Federal money is available to help soften the blow.

But who should get the money? Local governments are trying to determine that.

Youlanda Geary of St. Johns County was one of the millions whose pocketbook was impacted by COVID-19.

"I lost my job.," she says. "And we almost lost our home because it was before I was of age to have Medicare. So I lost my medical (insurance). It was just a bad situation." 

So Geary and her husband starting getting food from Epic-Cure which is a food bank and distribution organization in St. Augustine. Epic-Cure is now distributing five times the amount of food than it had before the pandemic.

Ken Mulford who helps run Epic-Cure said, "5,000+ people are getting food a month."

St. Johns County, like many local governments, is divvying up federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act.  It's money to help programs and people who were especially affected by the pandemic.

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Tuesday, dozens of people spoke to the St. Johns County Commission. Many of them were pleading for specific groups to not be left out of that funding.  

One of those groups mentioned in the meeting many times was Epic-Cure.  The organization is now serving even more people, not just because of Covid, but because of inflation.

And time is of the essence when it comes to funding. 

Epic-Cure is only able to be in the warehouse it uses until the end of the year,  the rent has doubled, and warehouse space is getting harder to find in St. Johns County’s real estate market.

So Epic-Cure would like to buy its own warehouse if it gets a slice of the federal pie.

"We hope to get that permanent place where we don’t’ have to run the risk of getting kicked out," said Mulford. "Where we don’t run the risk of having rent ever increasing."

St. Johns County had proposed using some federal COVID relief money for items such as computer software and emergency radios. However, Tuesday the commission decided to figure out a different way to fund those things, and that could possibly free up more of that federal money for groups like Epic-Cure.

As for Geary, she's doing "better."

"As things progressed, my health improved. We were able to get others things under control and I wanted to give back," she said. 

So now, Geary volunteers in the same warehouse where she sought help. 

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