MERRITT ISLAND, Fla. – A Brevard County roofing company is doing its part to help Central Florida families who are still struggling to afford food during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tom Scott owns 321 Roofing in Merritt Island and is a former insurance adjuster.
He said people are still struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic and he wants to do his part. He said he is donating 10% of his sales over the next several months to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.
"If I do 250, 300 houses I can potentially contribute $250,000 to Second Harvest," Scott said.
Scott started his initiative at John Kanekoa's home. Kanekoa is selling his Merritt Island home, but before the sale can go through, he said he needed to replace the roof.
Kanekoa said he got multiple bids, but ultimately decided to work with 321 Roofing because the company is helping families in need.
“Especially during this time of COVID-19 you get people fed and they need it. You get my roof replaced and I need it. It’s a win-win,” Kanekoa said.
Scott said one-by-one he can reach his goal is by helping homeowners, like Kanekoa, whose roofs may still have damage after Hurricane Irma in 2017. Scott said the deadline to reopen an insurance claim from that storm is September.
“You don’t always see the damage right after the storm, so it’s that latent effect of all that wind on the house that you see where those shingles have lifted and granules and problems that you have with roofing assembly, you don’t always see it in the first month or two months,” Scott said.
As the state starts to reopen and people go back to work, Dan Samuels with Second Harvest said the need for food is still there.
"What was before about 35 people a day searching for help on our website is now about 1,200 a day and growing," Samuels said.
He said with Scott's donation, they hope to provide a million meals to families in need.
"It's more than three days worth of meals that we're putting out right now into the community," Samuels said.
Second Harvest said all of the money raised through this partnership will purchase meals for families in Brevard County.
Click here for more information on how you can help Second Harvest food bank during the pandemic.