Second Harvest assisted by United Way of Acadiana will likely host its last food distribution effort at Cajun Field on Wednesday, at least for a while.
John Dziurgot, regional director for Second Harvest in this area, said that with students returning to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette this week, the Cajun Field parking lot will no longer be available for the food distribution.
He said some 700 cars and 800 families were expected Wednesday from 10 a.m. to noon to pick up meat, produce and dairy boxes of food, government supplies that were made available since the start of the pandemic, at least in part because of trade difficulties with China. It would be the fifth distribution.
“We can’t boot out the students,” Dziurgot said of the distribution site. “And we would need another place for mass distribution.”
The United Way of Acadiana has been assisting with food distribution.
But he said the distribution efforts have enabled Second Harvest to help hundreds of families at a time when area employment was declining.
He said the Corona Farmer Assistance Program was easy to operate because it required little paperwork; vehicles could move rapidly through the distribution process.
He said Second Harvest would continue to refer hungry families to 232-Help for assistance.
Second Harvest has invested in the area to help distribute food through area food banks. He said Second Harvest now operates to assist the hungry in 23 parishes, partnering with Catholic Charities of Acadiana in the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette.
In addition to expanding kitchen facilities at St. Joseph Diner, it is helping distribute food to outlying areas and by sending meals to the homeless who are sheltered in area hotels.
