BRONSON, Fla.— Even at 97 years old and with a cane, Bill Brown walks the property of The Children’s Table every day just like the other volunteers and staff members.
Wearing his veteran’s cap and a collared shirt with the nonprofit’s logo over his heart, he always answers the phones—or tackles any task that needs doing at the 30-year-old food bank that feeds more than 100,000 people a year.
“Mr. Bill,” as everyone calls him, co-founded The Children’s Table with his wife, Verna, in 1996. It all started when he planted a small garden on his land in Bronson, the seat of Levy County just west of Gainesville. One day, he ended up with more vegetables than he needed. So he gave them away. Then it happened again, and again. He sought to share his bounty with those who needed it the most.
“We would go to the Department of Children and Families with just our arms full of vegetables,” said his wife, who goes by “Mrs. Verna.”
After donating the vegetables to families, he considered buying groceries for them too. He and Verna went to the store for milk, bread and other items. Once they realized the demand, their charity became an official nonprofit.
A seed takes root
As you drive west on Archer Road just past Bronson, then south on West Thrasher Drive, a big white sign with images of smiling, dancing vegetables lets you know you’ve found The Children’s Table. On Mondays, the road piles up with around 250 cars full of families waiting for a turn to pick up food. The scene underscores the statistic that an estimated 1 in 5 children face hunger in Florida.
Crates upon crates of staples like bread, drinks and vegetables are lined up outside of The Children’s Table building. Sweets are piled high on tables under white tents. A freezer is stocked with meat, ready to be handed out.
The Children’s Table rolls additional crates and shopping carts to the road daily, filled with goods that people can stop by and grab. Sometimes it’s food, other times school supplies or other seasonal offerings.
The nonprofit also provides mobile food distributions. A yellow school bus with “The Children’s Table” emblazoned on the side rolls through Archer, Williston and Gainesville, dropping off food at key locations every Friday. The Children’s Table renovated the bus and took out all the seats to fill it with food. Several women, who began working with Bill Brown when he served just a few people, still operate the bus.
Today, the nonprofit reports serving more than 110,000 people annually. In 2025 it reported providing 2.2 million meals to those in need.
Bill Brown said the idea is not to just send food and money for one week and leave. They stay in contact and help families consistently until they can get back on their feet—and a new family comes along.
The Children’s Table asks for $5 donations for its care package. But if someone needs it and can’t make the small donation, they are not turned away.
The nonprofit doesn’t seek grants from the government like many food distributions, Mr. Bill said, because he thinks government grants come with too many strings. The most important angle is community, including a variety of churches that serve as some of the food-distribution points.
The Children’s Table also steps in during hurricanes and other disaster relief situations. The nonprofit headed to North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. It sent a boat to Puerto Rico with 800,000 pounds of food in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
Alaska to Florida
Bill Brown was born in 1929 outside Memphis, Tennessee. It was the Great Depression, and everyone had to help one another out, he said. So that’s what his family did. Food was scarce so he and his father would go hunting. Rabbits and squirrels were a part of their diet.
At 14, he started learning to fly planes. He paid for the lessons by doing odd jobs around the airport.
He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps at age 17, near the end of World War II. He never was deployed overseas but served as an engineer in the states.
“Nobody shot at me, I didn’t shoot at nobody,” Brown said.
After his military service, he made his way to New York. He made a group of friends that hung out on the Upper West Side. One night, Brown remembered, he looked to his friend Alan Mellman and said he’d always wanted to go to Alaska.
“Well, why the devil don’t you?” Mellman asked him.
Brown packed his things and hit the road. He hitchhiked west.
He arrived in Fairbanks in 1957. He was broke. He walked into a hotel with all his belongings and asked if he could leave them for a time. The receptionist said yes. He went back out to the unfamiliar streets and spoke to everyone he saw, asking for work. He’d walked a full block when he saw a group of men sitting in the back of a truck. They called him over and told him to come along; they were on their way to fight a forest fire. Brown went back to the hotel, grabbed his bags and hopped in.
He became committed enough to Alaska to campaign for its statehood. He helped put the 49th star on the American flag and saw Alaska officially become a state on Jan. 3, 1959.
Then, he got more involved in Alaska politics. He helped Nick Begich Sr. run for state senator by flying him around in his Cessna 180. Begich, who went on to serve in Congress, later vanished and was presumed dead in a plane crash.
His work for the Democratic Party brought Brown to Florida in 1967 to organize delegates for Robert F. Kennedy the year before his death.
It was decades later, in the early 1990s, that Bill and Verna decided to settle in Levy County. They chose the rural county as a good place to raise three of their grandchildren they’d taken in. The kids led them to gardening, and the gardening led them to activism against hunger.
In 2004, when he was 75 years old, Brown walked from Chiefland to Tallahassee in support of National Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Month. He slept in a large refrigerator box by the side of the road each night as he made his way to the state Capitol, 119 miles away.
“It’s been very rewarding years,” he said.
An entire wall of The Children’s Table’s annex building, located down the road from the Bronson Speedway, is covered with awards recognizing the organization and Bill and Verna Brown. Locally the couple won The Gainesville Sun’s 39th annual Community Service Award in 2002 for their dedication to feeding families in need.
Brown said he is not interested in recognition, just getting food into hungry tummies. “It’s not the plaques on the wall,” he said. “It’s touching the lives of other people.”
“Freaking precious”
The Children’s Table operations manager, Stacey Kile, said the Browns’ home was a revolving door for children. In addition to raising three of their grandchildren, Bill and Verna fostered some 30 other kids. Having so many children underfoot was the original inspiration to expand their garden. The foster kids also helped them understand the region’s needs.
“Working with them [Bill and Verna] has been amazing,” Kile said. “And to watch the relationship is freaking precious.”
When Brown is talking to someone and his wife isn’t in his eyesight, he’ll reach behind him to see if she’s there. Kile said she’ll tap Verna’s shoulder and say, “he’s not gonna walk around looking for you, but you know he’s looking.”
In all he’s accomplished in his 97 years, Brown said he’s proudest of the people—those he’s helped, and those who have joined his cause. He said they go above and beyond to help, no questions asked.
“‘We’ is not Verna and I,” he said, referring to all the staff and volunteers who help haul and hand out food. “ ‘We’ is these people.”
A relatively small staff run The Children’s Table, he said. That’s all he needs because they are efficient and always show up.
Kile became involved after first receiving food herself. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she said she struggled in the period of limbo before the economy opened back up. She sat shocked in her silver Toyota FJ cruiser in front of The Children’s Table as the volunteers filled the back of her car with food. She couldn’t believe they asked for only a $5 donation. She drove to the end of the line and asked a volunteer how she could get involved. She started the following Thursday.
“The first interaction Bill and I ever had, he yelled at me,” she laughed.
She was collecting donations and placing them in a plastic bag. A man walked up to her to collect the money. She didn’t know who he was. She insisted on keeping the cash until she found the person in charge to take it for safekeeping.
“I’m Head Chief here,” Brown said.
But clearly, he has built a table that will last beyond him through the volunteers he’s inspired and the people he’s served.
