The Miami Marathon had an outstanding turnout this year and donated over 21,000 pounds of leftover food and water after their big race. That's over 17,600 meals provided for those in need in South Florida! The food was picked up by Nationwide Van Lines, who delivered it to Feeding South Florida. After the race, a visitor from Michigan spotted a Miami Beach clean up crew disposing of several hundred unopened water bottles after the Miami Marathon. Concerned, the visitor reported the incident.
Frankie Ruiz, co-founder of the marathon, said that the water disposal was a terrible and unintended mistake, especially since they had taken great care to partner with Move For Hunger so that all of the race refreshments would go to the food bank, rather than the trash. Miami Marathon organizers have apologized for the error and have vowed to change their policies to ensure that something like this will never happen again.
It's important that situations like this are prevented as much as possible. The Miami Marathon was careful to work with Move For Hunger to assign responsible for picking up the food and water at the finish line, so it is possible that the rest wasn't accounted for because it was left at other race check points. This miscommunication error can easily be corrected for the next race. Over the last couple of years, the Miami Marathon has donated thousands of pounds of food and water through Move For Hunger to Feeding America South Florida. Their generosity and continued effort is greatly appreciated and has helped feed so many people.
Source: Miami New Times
