OPA-LOCKA, Fla. \u2014 Since 2007, Make-A-Wish Veterans has been feeding American war veterans and struggling families in Opa-locka. <\/p>\n
But the nonprofit\u2019s executive director, Princess Fuller, is quick to point out this year is unlike any other. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a bigger crowd,\u201d said Fuller. \u201cIt\u2019s tripled the time from last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Make-A-Wish Veterans is now serving 350 people each week. That\u2019s up from 150 last year. <\/p>\n
Fuller attributes the increase to the housing crisis, loss of employment and SNAP benefits. The government shutdown has only exacerbated the problem. <\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of times we just put together our own personal funds to keep the overhead and to keep the food pantry going,\u201d added Fuller.<\/p>\n
Local 10 spoke with 82-year-old Elijah, who\u2019s on a fixed income and depends on Make-A-Wish to put food on the table. Our crew also met Tashura Smith, who walks to the pantry every Friday to feed her family.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as I get the box, they will be munching already,\u201d said Tashura about her kids. \u201cAt least for one week.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Arely Khalil fell on hard times, Make-A-Wish Veterans came to her rescue. <\/p>\n
\u201cI got sick and this is why I got to know them and since then I\u2019ve been coming, because it\u2019s really good things here that we can use at home,\u201d said Khalil.<\/p>\n
Make-A-Wish Veterans receives its food supply mostly from large food banks and provides boxes with at least four days\u2019 worth of groceries.<\/p>\n
Fuller tells us more support is needed to keep the lights on. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking for much help,\u201d said Fuller. \u201cWe are looking to supply at least 80 to 100 thanksgiving baskets to people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those are people who bravely fought for our freedom. Make-A-Wish is hoping the Local 10 Day of Giving can make a difference. <\/p>\n
\u201cToday 2025 is the big need, and hunger does not stop,\u201d added Fuller.<\/p>\n
The Local 10 Day of Giving will be running all day on Friday, November 7. Local 10\u2019s Will Manso and Betty Davis will be joining the organization at the Publix store in Miami Shores, located at 9050 Biscayne Boulevard. You can take your nonperishable food donations to them or click here to make a safe monetary donation<\/a>. <\/p>\n \ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OPA-LOCKA, Fla. \u2014 Since 2007, Make-A-Wish Veterans has been feeding American war veterans and struggling families in Opa-locka.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":{"0":"post-34893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hialeah","8":"tag-hialeah","9":"tag-hialeah-headlines","10":"tag-hialeah-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}