- December 13, 2025
VCSO Sheriff Mike Chitwood with Rabbi Rob Lennick, overseeing the distribution of food to Volusia County residents who are on the SNAP program. Photo by Sierra Williams
Between 200,000 and 300,000 pounds of food were donated to the food drive for SNAP recipients. Photo by Sierra Williams
Volunteer Erica Marriott lifts food into a waiting car. Photo by Sierra Williams
Parker Marriott, a member of Cub Scout Pack 475, helps organize food to distribute. Photo by Sierra Williams
Volunteer Crystal Butler (left) helps organize food to distribute to Volusia SNAP recipients. Photo by Sierra Williams
Volunteer Laura Ashkenazi, with the Jerry Doliner Food Bank, loads food into the trunk of a car. Photo by Sierra Williams
Volusia County Fire Department Volunteer Agnes Rawlins directs traffic at the SNAP recipient food drive on Nov. 9. Photo by Sierra Williams
Between 200,000 and 300,000 pounds of food were donated to the food drive for SNAP recipients. Photo courtesy of VCSO
Between 200,000 and 300,000 pounds of food were donated to the food drive for SNAP recipients. Photo courtesy of VCSO
Volunteers direct traffic and load food into cars at the food drive. Photo by Sierra Williams
Volunteers load bags of food into cars at the food drive. Photo by Sierra Williams
VCSO Sheriff Mike Chitwood said the food drive was able to give food to 3,500 Volusia families. Photo by Sierra Williams
Between 200,000 and 300,000 pounds of food were donated to the food drive for SNAP recipients. Photo by Sierra Williams
With just days to put the event together, a food drive organized by the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office and the Jewish Federation of Volusia and Flagler Counties has managed to get food to some 3,500 Volusia County families.
Sheriff Mike Chitwood said the food drive was about helping out at home. All the donations and volunteers shows Volusia County residents are there “looking out for their neighbors and everybody else.”
“I think this is unprecedented,” he said. “The amount of food and the number of people we're going to be able to serve, I don't think anybody could match this as of now.”
VCSO, Chitwood and the Jewish Federation of Volusia and Flagler Counties set up their base at the Daytona International Speedway to receive donations of food on Saturday, Nov. 8 and then distribute that food to Volusia residents who are on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Locals donated enough funds for 500 gift cards, which ran out in an hour on Sunday, Chitwood said, and some 200,000-300,000 pounds of food were donated to the food drive over the weekend, Rabbi Rob Lennick said.
Hundreds of cars came through on Nov. 8 to drop off groceries, Lennick said.
“We’ve been part of a miracle,” he said. “We've shown in Volusia County we are compassionate, we are empathetic, we are loving."
There are 39,000 families in Volusia County who receive food stamps, Chitwood said. When the federal government shut down on Oct. 1, Pres. Donald Trump’s administration warned that food stamps would run out by Nov. 1.
We've shown in Volusia County we are compassionate, we are empathetic, we are loving."
— ROB LENNICK, rabbi of Jewish Federation of Volusia & Flagler Counties
Over the last several weeks, the SNAP funding has been debated in the courts. The Trump administration has stated it does not have the funding to fully-fund the program while the government is shut down, but several federal judges have ordered the program to be fully funded for November.
A Supreme Court ruling on Nov. 7, however, blocked the court order to fully-fund the program, according to an AP News article.
Lennick said the minute the SNAP withholding was announced, the numbers at the Federation’s Jerry Doliner Food Bank “doubled within a week.” On top of that, the food supply in general – particularly with wholesale food purchases – has been reduced, Lennick said.
The food drive and the turnout for both volunteers and donations shows, Lennick said, that there is always room for compassion.
“This is about loving your neighbor, and we've witnessed it for the last two days,” he said.
Chitwood said when he and Lennick first hatched the scheme, they were able to raise $72,000 in 30 hours and Lennick organized a few truckloads of deliveries. On top of that, Volusia County residents came out of the wood work to donate and volunteer their time to sort, bag and distribute the food.
On Sunday, Nov. 9, cars began lining up along West International Speedway Boulevard early in the morning to enter the Daytona International Speedway, causing traffic to back up for hours all the way to the Interstate 95 on- and off-bound intersection.
Feeding people is not about ideology. People have to eat."
— MIKE CHITWOOD, Volusia County Sheriff
Chitwood said Volusia residents need to continue looking out for their neighbors. His hope, he said, is that the government wises up.
“Feeding people is not about ideology. People have to eat,” Chitwood says. “You guys can fight about your ideology. Fight all you want. But why does it have to be balanced on the backs of people that need the help?”
Despite the quick turn around on the event, Lennick estimated at around 300 Volusia residents came out to volunteer.
Margo Rivera, a teacher at Atlantic High School with the Academy of Law and Government, organized a group of her National Honors Society students to come out and help volunteer. She said the food drive taught her students the value of a community working together.
“[It teaches them] how well everybody can work together if they choose to all come together,” Rivera said. “That the resources are here in our community, but the need is also here in our community, and it's just a matter of everybody working together.”
Rivera said she doesn’t think people really understand how much need there is in Volusia County. When she arrived to volunteer at 9 a.m., two hours before the food drive was supposed to start, she said, people were already lined up.
Erica Marriott and her young son Parker, a Cub Scout with Pack 475, also showed up to help. Marriott said she saw the VCSO’s posts about the food drive and wanted to help. Parker, too, said he wanted to “show up for his community.”
The two arrived around 11:30 a.m. and stayed through the rain to load cars with bags of food. Marriott, a native Volusia resident and a retired military personnel, said they finished up at a Cub Scout fundraiser early and came over to help volunteer and help her community.
“I think it shows my son that people can come together despite any type of differences that they may have, whether it's religious, politics, anything,” she said. “When it comes to making sure people can help people, it's [about] showing feelings.”
