
The past few months have been some challenging times, not only for our community but for our nation. Many members of our community lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the shutdown of several businesses in our community due to the stay at home order. Several of the businesses and nonprofit associations in the Cocoa community stepped up to the challenge and made sure our citizens were taken care of.
The Cocoa Police Department and Community First Charity partnered with local Cocoa business, Time Out Sports Bar Plus in their efforts to feed the community, “ Time Out for Humanity”. Members of Community First Charity such as David Lightholder were instrumental in gathering sponsors to
help Time Out buy and prepare over 8,000 free meals for the community. Mayor Jake Williams, Jr., who also helped sponsor one of the meals, Councilwoman Brenda Warner (District 2) and Councilwoman Lorraine Koss (District 4) were all on hand to assist in Time Out's efforts to feed our community. Also a special thanks to the staff at Jacob's Engineering for raising $2,000 to assist with the meals on Mother's Day. Also, local Chef and Business Owner of Q's Crackin' Crab and Seafood stepped up in this effort to assist our community.
With the assistance of The REAL Church and Celebration Tabernacle, local business Pebbles Catering and Event Design also offered free meals to the community. Volunteers even helped bring the meals to those that weren’t able to come out to their location. Other businesses and organizations throughout our community also supported those in need. While employees at the City of Cocoa continued to work to provide core municipal services to our residents, protective equipment and supplies were hard to come by. West Cocoa Pharmacy made their own hand
sanitizer and made it available to the City of Cocoa when supplies elsewhere were non-existent. The Historic Cocoa Village Playhouse used old costumes to make face masks and donated them to the City of Cocoa and others throughout the community.
Non-profit associations such as Cocoa Police Athletic League (PAL) and the Boys and Girls Club of Cocoa also continued to feed members of our community during the pandemic. The Cocoa PAL Youth Leaders volunteered over 60 hours to serve meals to students and the elderly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
All of these acts of kindness as well as others, show how amazing the Cocoa community really is. We stand together, united to make sure that our community rises above adversity.