Fillet for Friends founders (from left) Maccabee Herman and Harrison Konsker
High school students Harrison Konsker and Maccabee Herman were avid weekend anglers from Boca Raton who realized that they could offer up their recreational bags of catch to those who needed them most.
The two wanted a way to intertwine their fishing success with their passion to serve the community. So, in 2014, they founded Fillet for Friends (FFF).
“The quality and donations that we’re bringing to the food banks, like Boca Helping Hands, is so special compared to what they were getting on a daily basis — high fat, low protein and highly processed foods,” explains Konsker, 23, a recent graduate of Stanford University. (Herman, also 23, recently graduated from the University of Florida.) “We vacuum-seal the fish, so it’s preserved at the highest quality.”
FFF, a 501(c)(3) certified Boca Raton nonprofit organization, draws on a diverse group of volunteers from all backgrounds, with a base of 125-150 individuals including 50-75 high school students.
“You don’t have to be a fisherman to be part of the organization; we have event coordinators, technical volunteers and even a videographer and a photographer,” Konsker points out. “For high schoolers, volunteer hours count as community service hours — they’re doing what they love and helping the community, one fish at a time.”
FFF now operates from Boca Raton to the Keys to Jupiter to Sarasota, Konsker adds.
The majority of donations come from fishing tournaments across Florida, where volunteers collect a surplus of fresh fish — cleaned, filleted, packaged and donated within days. FFF also makes it effortless — via social media, its website and organic growth — for individual Florida anglers to donate their fish.
“We have donated more than 26,000 pounds of fish and, in the last five years, game,” Konsker says. “Since 2014, we’ve fed and reduced hunger for more than 100,000 Floridians.”
The co-founders hope to expand their nonprofit to be able to donate fish across the entire state of Florida and to let every high school “fisherperson” and volunteer know about their incredible organization.
“It’s really easy to start a Fillet for Friends chapter at any high school across the state,” Konsker says. “Together, we can help feed the community, one volunteer at a time.”
For more information or to support Fillet for Friends, email connect@filletforfriends.org or visit filletforfriends.org.