A Great Story

At the end of the ABC news tonight, they named this boy their person of the week. If you have time, read this. It inspires me and I bet it will you too. (and yes, it is where I found JOY today.)

A Miami Shores sixth-grader is behind a bill that would help restaurants and hotels donate leftover food to the homeless.

By JENNIFER LEBOVICH

Jack Davis, 11, was told by a buffet manager to eat up one morning because any food that was left uneaten would have to be thrown out. That idea didn’t sit well with Jack.

As a fifth-grader, Jack Davis learned about how government works, even drafting pretend legislation in his social studies class.

A year later, 11-year-old Jack is pressing for a real law—one that could help feed Florida’s homeless.

The sixth-grader is being credited for inspiring a bill that will allow restaurants and hotels to donate leftover food to places like homeless shelters and not face legal liabilities.

For years, many eateries and other places have simply thrown the food away, rather than face a lawsuit if someone got sick.

‘’I kind of used my social studies teacher’s advice,’’ said Jack, a sixth-grader at Ransom Everglades School. ``She told us to make a difference.’’

Jack, with the help of his attorney dad, Jeff Davis, got in touch with a friend, Miami attorney Stephen Marino. Marino, a board member of the Florida Justice Association, a statewide association of consumer advocates, brought Jack’s idea up a few days later during lunch with State Rep. Ari Porth, the bill’s House sponsor.

‘’I’ve never been contacted by someone so young about an idea for a bill,’’ Porth said. ``I think it’s highly unusual and very impressive.’’

It all started one summer morning after breakfast as Jack and his family finished eating at a buffet in Chattanooga, Tenn.

He was one of the last at the buffet line—a typical spread of biscuits, bacon and eggs—and a manager told the family to eat as much as they could.

Jack asked why? The manager told him the rest would be thrown away.

‘’He explained to me if they gave the food to a homeless shelter they could be sued for sickness or food poisoning,’’ Jack said.

The thought of throwing away food bothered Jack, who had taken trips to Peru, the home country of his mother, Yasmin Davis. Traveling through the country, he had seen the poor begging for food.

A school trip last year to a homeless shelter also made him think about those in need in Miami.

‘’I thought: Is there anything we can do?’’ said Jack, who aspires to be a lawyer and who over the summer attended a leadership conference in Washington, D.C. ‘He said, `You’d have to change the law.’ ‘’

He talked it over with his dad, an injury lawyer, who helped him understand what the manager said.

‘’It actually affected him,’’ said Jeff Davis, of Miami Shores. ``It was something he thought was just a crime to waste.’’

BROAD SUPPORT

After Jack got the ball rolling, Porth contacted the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association to see what stood in the way of restaurants donating food.

‘’Sure enough, it wasn’t because restaurants didn’t want to—it was because of the liability issue,’’ said Porth, a Coral Springs Democrat.

The restaurant association supports the bill, said Jennifer Garner, director of communications for the association that represents 10,000 restaurants and hotels in the state.

Because of increased litigation against restaurants, the association had been seeing a decrease in donations, she said.

‘’A lot more restaurants are concerned about the liability issue,’’ Garner said. ``There has been a decline in restaurants that are donating to homeless shelters. This is something that will definitely help. We know a lot of our members are interested in doing something like this, but with the concern over being sued it’s always a little bit harder.’’

A change in the law to give restaurants and hotels additional protection ‘’would be superb,’’ said Frank Ferrara, food services director at Miami’s Camillus House, which prepares about 1,500 meals a day for the homeless. ``Look at how much food is wasted every day; picture a brunch at one of the major hotels.’’

Ferrara said Camillus House doesn’t get many donations from restaurants or hotels because they are concerned about liability.

‘’The major hotels and restaurants are too frightened,’’ Ferrara said, adding that the shelter does occasionally get leftovers from private catering jobs.

On Tuesday, the Florida Restaurant Lending a Helping Hand Act was presented to the state Legislature. The Senate Business Regulation Committee approved the bill unanimously.

Said Sen. Jim King, a Jacksonville Republican: ``It’s about time.’’

It has only one more stop before it moves to a full vote in the Senate.

`A REAL ROLE MODEL’

That the idea came from an 11-year-old is ‘’the best part of the bill,’’ said Sen. Nan Rich, a Weston Democrat, who presented the bill.

‘’It was exciting to me that a young person would take time to do this,’’ Rich said. ``He’s a real role model for young people.’’

Rich sent an e-mail to Jack on Monday, saying she hopes the bill passes and that he can be there when the governor signs it.

His fifth-grade social studies teacher is delighted Jack took her lesson to heart.

‘’I pretty much want all my students to be as much as they can be and to go for it,’’ said Deborah Rogero, a fifth-grade teacher at Saint Thomas Episcopal Parish in Coral Gables. ``It’s their responsibility to make the world a better place.’’

Jack said he hopes his involvement encourages kids his age to help others.

‘’I can really believe in myself because I’m just a kid, and kids are usually not the ones who change the world,’’ Jack said. ``I thought it would be a change.’’