Gainesville Commissioners allocated about $100,000 to 46 nonprofit organizations and passed a resolution to support the DREAM Act at a meeting Thursday.
Each non-profit organization will receive up to $2,500.
Sister Hazel, director of home and foreign missions at Williams Temple Church of God in Christ, was awarded $2,500 to give out free dinners.
She said people often ask her for meals when the St. Francis House, a soup kitchen and shelter, reaches the 130-meal limit set by the city.
She said she will use the money to buy a van to transport food.
“I feed anybody, anywhere,” Hazel, 85, said.
She also wants to transport people to clinics. She said people sometimes tell her they want to get tested for HIV, but only if she drives them. Now, she said, she’ll be able to.
The commission also passed a resolution to support the DREAM Act. If passed in Congress, the act would allow children of illegal immigrants to become citizens if they attend college or serve in the U.S. military.
Commissioner Jeanna Mastrodicasa, an administrator at UF, said she once asked a class of UF students to raise their hands if they knew an illegal immigrant. Almost every student raised his or her hand.
“This is a real issue for real people,” she said.
She said she wants to see the government make a path for hard-working young adults to become citizens.
It was a coincidence that the resolution passed at the same time the act is catching the nation’s attention, she said, but she also thinks the timing is appropriate.
“It’s really a small token on our part to provide the support.”
