Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We must never get discouraged when we are doing the right thing. If it was just a matter of doing the right thing and then everything would be great, we would not have all the struggles in liFe that we experience. Take all difficulties as an opportunity to bring the truth to people that have forgotten that truth prevails.

Sometimes I just don't understand our Government when they are on TV and the newspapers saying things like "Open Government" and "Government of the people and for the people". When one of the people or a small group of the people cannot even get an answer to concerns they have that will affect many hungry children and their families. From July 2007 through January 2008 we have tried to receive an answer to several concerns we have with The Florida Department of Agriculture's T.E.F.A.P. program and they refuse to answer each of our concerns. The Department of Agriculture keeps having a different Department of Agriculture employees send the same answer, sorry you did not get the bid, to late and nothing is perfect, instead of answering each of our concerns. Our concerns were never about those issues, this is just a way of dismissing people when they request answers to their concerns. We just received a letter in December that stated three employees and the Justice Department met in November but they did not keep any minutes of the meeting when they went over our 100's of pages of concerns. Is this what is called "OPEN GOVERNMENT"?   

Dear friends of helping the less fortunate of Florida, do not get discouraged, because that is exactly what some would want and then the issues would be buried and you labeled as "he is just a trouble maker". The only way you or small groups can get the answers you deserve is to have some high official read your concerns and bring it to the Department Heads, because the Department Heads could not have seem my letters and accept the answers we received.

We have nothing to hide so we are not afraid to put what we believe in writing, the following is exactly what we would like to accomplish with all the effort we are putting this. The Department of Agriculture has accomplished eliminating small hard working ministries whose only agenda is helping the hungry. These ministries were good enough to assist The Department of Agriculture for many years and then the RFP were changed to make it impossible for them to compete. We would like to see an effort to include these small ministries that served so well. Remember, one day, someone with authority will read these letters and start to ask some questions, on that day, things will change.

Lester