The Miami Herald features a story of Jack Davis, an eleven year old member of St. Thomas Episcopal Parish, who is challenging the Florida legislature to pass a law to protect restaurants and food services who want to give their food to homeless shelters.
As a fifth-grader, Jack Davis learned about how government works, even drafting pretend legislation in his social studies class. A year later, 11-year-old Jack is pressing for a real law — one that could help feed Florida’s homeless. The sixth-grader is being credited for inspiring a bill that will allow restaurants and hotels to donate leftover food to places like homeless shelters and not face legal liabilities. For years, many eateries and other places have simply thrown the food away, rather than face a lawsuit if someone got sick. ”I kind of used my social studies teacher’s advice,” said Jack, a sixth-grader at Ransom Everglades School. “She told us to make a difference.”
Jack, with the help of his attorney dad, Jeff Davis, got in touch with a friend, Miami attorney Stephen Marino. Marino, a board member of the Florida Justice Association, a statewide association of consumer advocates, brought Jack’s idea up a few days later during lunch with State Rep. Ari Porth, the bill’s House sponsor. ”I’ve never been contacted by someone so young about an idea for a bill,” Porth said. “I think it’s highly unusual and very impressive.”
It all started one summer morning after breakfast as Jack and his family finished eating at a buffet in Chattanooga, Tenn. He was one of the last at the buffet line — a typical spread of biscuits, bacon and eggs — and a manager told the family to eat as much as they could. Jack asked why? The manager told him the rest would be thrown away. ”He explained to me if they gave the food to a homeless shelter they could be sued for sickness or food poisoning,” Jack said.
Read it all here.