PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — 10-year-old Grant Davis is part of the team that makes a local mobile pantry go.
“We go to some stops, and we have lines of people that we give food to from the freezers and the shelves,” said Davis.
Grant is picking up where his older brother Jackson left off.
We met Jackson Davis in 2022 when he led the project to turn an old school bus into a mobile pantry to work with Messengers of Hope Mission in Pasco County.
It was the final step for him in becoming an Eagle Scout.
“I’m just looking forward to actually getting the bus out and working,” Jackson told us in 2022.
The bus has been working ever since and rolls out four times a month to locations around Pasco and Pinellas counties.
Bob Gardner is the CEO of Messengers of Hope Mission.
“The bus has made it so much easier. I had forgotten how hard it was to get it done before we had the bus,” said Gardner.
Jackson and Grant’s mother, Jenny, volunteers at the bus, too.
“We actually had a girl come up today, and she had a bag for food and said I want to donate to you guys because you guys helped me out in the past,” said Jenny Davis.
The mobile pantry now helps feed 6,000 people a month.
And as for the teen that started it?
Jackson is finishing up his first year of college after being named the national Eagle Scout of the year.
“It’s huge to know that my son did this as his Eagle project. And it’s still…You are going to make me cry now. He’s coming home on Wednesday from college. It’s just so cool that something he started helps other people.”
But to keep this bus going, especially with the rising cost of groceries, they need more donations.
“If everyone could even just open their pantries and just see. Everybody has some food they could donate and help other people,” said Jenny.
“You know, it might just be time we take a look if HOAs are really even necessary.
Maybe we should just do away with homeowner associations as a whole.”
South Florida lawmaker Rep. Juan Carlos Porras (R-Miami) says it may be time to do away with homeowners associations altogether, as more Floridians speak out about rising fees, costly lawsuits, and even arrests tied to HOA disputes. He said this week that he is considering filing legislation in the next session that would abolish HOAs statewide.
