It’s a tiny community that’s easy to miss. Midway / Canaan City is but a few hundred homes that once housed the families of migrant workers in Eastern Seminole County.
Today the farms are long gone, but this week’s Getting Results Award winner is still there, and she’s keeping the community ties fertile and growing.
Every Thursday Lisa Green and a handful of neighbors gather at the Midway Safe Harbor Community Center to distribute food to nearby residents.
[TRENDING: ‘God, forgive me:’ Mom arrested on murder charge | Trump pushes for 2nd round of $1,200 direct payments | Daylight Saving Time debate]
“We are here to serve the Midway community and surrounding areas,” Green said between handing off pre packaged breakfast and lunch meals to waiting neighbors. “Our main goal is to do whatever we can to help.”
The weekly drive through distribution started shortly after the COVID-19 shutdown. Green and her cousin Emory Green started the Midway Coalition to address the needs of the small community.
“Every volunteer you see over there is a resident of this community,” Emory Green said. “They take pride in what we have, our legacy.”
That legacy includes a community that is celebrating 100 years since it’s founding.
“I love my community,” Lisa Green said. “I say my community because I was born and raised here. My family history is here so this community means a whole lot ot me.”
The Midway Coalition partnered with the nonprofit, Heart, Hands and Hope. Together they’ve passed out more than 100-thousand meals in 22 weeks.
Heart, Hands and Hope CEO, Eric Wilson, says Midway is a food desert and the pandemic has hit the community hard. “You can see why this community is forgotten about sometimes,” Wilson said, pointing out the nearby international airport and busy State Road 46 bordering the neighborhood. “They’re right in the middle and they’re under served.”
Wilson delivered 700 meals supplied by Second Harvest Food Bank the morning of our visit. Most were distributed in a about an hour and a half.
When the last car pulls out of the distribution line, Green packs the coalition’s golf cart with meals and heads off into the neighborhood. For the next hour she makes stops at the homes of elderly residents who can’t get to the center themselves.
“I try to make sure they’re all taken care of,” Lisa Green said from behind the wheel. She makes her way down side streets and main thoroughfares Every other car she passes seems to honk. She waves back.
Volunteer, Kirk Hill, is riding along. “Lisa is special. Everybody in the community knows her. Everybody calls out her name,” he said.
Green was nominated for the News 6 Getting Results Award by Midway resident, Veronica Berry. “That cart is amazing,” Berry said. “No matter if it’s raining or if it’s sunny. She and that team are out there taking care of business and taking care of people.”
Berry said she knows the elderly residents appreciate the help. “To know that someone in the community cares enough to bring the food to you, that’s amazing that’s awesome,” Berry said. “She deserves recognition. The whole team deserves recognition.”