HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA/CNNewsource) — The Hillsborough County School District said it did not have enough food for students because of some "greedy" individuals.
The district allows families to pick up free food once a week at 147 sites in Hillsborough County.
The school district said some people were visiting multiple sites to receive free food and then selling it for a profit.
"It's a shame some of our constituents were coming through the line at multiple schools and taking away food from children in need," said Superintendent Addison Davis.
The district began distributing food one day a week to provide students with a nutritious meal. The program helps families during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Families could receive one pound of lunch meat, a loaf of bread, milk, juice and other snacks.
"My job as superintendent of schools is to take care of every one of our students every single day," said Superintendent Davis.
The school district said it did not have enough food on Wednesday.
The district said people in at least 50 cars went to multiple locations to receive free food. It appears they sold the food on social media platforms for a profit.
"A few of our community members would go to multiple sites and take food from children and seek to build their financial portfolio on the children who did not have food today," said Superintendent Davis.
The district has remained flexible allowing families to pick up food at any of the sites. It will adjust its protocols to make sure people do not take advantage of the system.
School staff are now using a tracker to make sure parents are not cheating the system.
Parents will have to give their child’s name and school ID number in order to pickup food, and so they cannot pickup more than once.
“We want to make sure that children actually get the nutrition they need to be successful during the e learning process,” said Davis.
