{"id":293457,"date":"2025-10-11T01:58:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T01:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/293457\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T01:58:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T01:58:29","slug":"waste-not-want-not-104-5-wokv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/293457\/","title":{"rendered":"Waste Not Want Not \u2013 104.5 WOKV"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\">ORANGE PARK, Fla.  \u2014 For 35 years, Waste Not Want Not has been rescuing food and feeding the Northeast Florida community. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/https:\/\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/cmg\/DWGHK3CG2FBXZAFSDFURSIGLCY.jpg\" width=\"1440\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ImageMetadata__MetadataParagraph-sc-1htor29-0 lnDeWE image-metadata\">Waste Not Want Not (Elandra Fernandez)<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\">It all began when founder, Debra Smyers, witnessed a restaurant at the Orange Park Mall throwing away a lot of food. Smyers decided to take action and began finding ways to save food and give it to people in need. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\">\u201cOur tagline is connecting the dots between surplus food and hungry people and that\u2019s really what she did, she connected the dots,\u201d said Executive Director of Waste Not Want Not, Kathleen Spears. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/https:\/\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/cmg\/VEM5AQ6AURFYZF7U4Z3YLNXHM4.jpg\" width=\"1440\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ImageMetadata__MetadataParagraph-sc-1htor29-0 lnDeWE image-metadata\">Waste Not Want Not (Elandra Fernandez)<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\">Today, Waste Not Want Not collects food from local grocery stores, restaurants, farmers and caterers. From their distribution center in Orange Park, they serve 14 counties across Northeast Florida. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s so important right now especially that we elevate our food rescue efforts not just because of the environment needs but more importantly the food needs. The food insecurity rate all across our 14 counties is increasing; we want to see it go the opposite direction,\u201d said Spears. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/https:\/\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/cmg\/57QCGQVE3BDY5DI7NK3PUXSWYU.jpg\" width=\"1440\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ImageMetadata__MetadataParagraph-sc-1htor29-0 lnDeWE image-metadata\">Waste Not Want Not (Elandra Fernandez)<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/https:\/\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/cmg\/WESTPBAIXZBDBAXF4GKKGCYSBE.jpg\" width=\"1440\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ImageMetadata__MetadataParagraph-sc-1htor29-0 lnDeWE image-metadata\">Waste Not Want Not (Elandra Fernandez)<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/https:\/\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/cmg\/RF46X6QDHFF7ZON4BRCZIBPSVA.jpg\" width=\"1440\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ImageMetadata__MetadataParagraph-sc-1htor29-0 lnDeWE image-metadata\">Waste Not Want Not (Elandra Fernandez)<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\">Partnering with over 100 nonprofits including churches, food banks, and community organizations, they help ensure food reaches those who need it the most. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\">With the help of over 200 volunteers, the organization rescues and sorts food daily and over 2 million pounds a year. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/https:\/\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/cmg\/RCNNWUGRIZACRJ7QYFBJE4JE7A.jpg\" width=\"1440\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ImageMetadata__MetadataParagraph-sc-1htor29-0 lnDeWE image-metadata\">Waste Not Want Not (Elandra Fernandez)<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/https:\/\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/cmg\/PNYRIO3MA5AAJCAAD4GXP3D7JM.jpg\" width=\"1440\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ImageMetadata__MetadataParagraph-sc-1htor29-0 lnDeWE image-metadata\">Waste Not Want Not (Elandra Fernandez)<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\">Spears says they will continue to feed the community until no one is left hungry. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph\">If you have a business you would like to be considered for WOKV\u2019s For Locals By Locals email us at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wokv.com\/news\/local\/locals-by-locals-waste-not-want-not\/22VTSC7PCRE67BUX6ZBIJFLO2I\/mailto:news@wokv.com\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><b>news@wokv.com.<\/b><\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 dbPNdY body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92025 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE PARK, Fla. \u2014 For 35 years, Waste Not Want Not has been rescuing food and feeding the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":293458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[18000,5229,150190,17998,3188,723,11644,7310,150191,17999,7325,15017,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,150189],"class_list":{"0":"post-293457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-18000","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-debra-smyers","11":"tag-duval","12":"tag-fl","13":"tag-florida","14":"tag-food-insecurity","15":"tag-jacksonville","16":"tag-kathleen-spears","17":"tag-ne-florida","18":"tag-northeast-florida","19":"tag-orange-park","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa","26":"tag-waste-not-want-not"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115353061021329083","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}