Our program coordinator, Bennet Bastian, has had quite the array of experiences prior to joining the team at Food For Thought. A world traveler and volunteer with The Peace Corp, Bennet is fluent in four additional languages (German + 3 Ethiopian languages).  His two years experience with the Peace Corp and as a public health contractor in Ethiopia lead him to Food For Thought when he returned to his home on the Emerald Coast. 

During his time in Ethiopia, Bennet focused on public health, organizing volunteers and gardening, which has translated well to his role at Food For Thought as the program coordinator.  He spends his time supporting the programs at each of the pantries (backpack, snack and garden), and definitely has become our go-to-guy for anything related to the Full Circle Garden, as he helps to keep them flourishing. In addition, Bennet is key in helping our program director facilitate the packing and delivery of the backpacks and snacks to each of the schools among the two counties FFT Serves.

Bennet enjoys the interaction he has with the volunteers that come to help Food For Thought, and was drawn to FFT outreach knowing that it is helping to benefit kids in our community that are in need.  A native of Okaloosa County, Bennet said that if he were a kid today, he would likely have been a beneficiary of the FFT program as he was on the reduced meal program in school himself.  

We appreciate all the hard work that Bennet does coordinating our backpack, snack and garden programs and are very thankful that he has a green thumb!

School is out this week for both Walton and Okaloosa counties, which means Summertime!! While most kids are excited to have the time off from school, there are many kids that have anxiety about being hungry over the school break. 

The FFT Summer Program serves both Okaloosa and Walton Counties, providing 66K meals to 600 students over three months.  The students involved in the summer program are able to pick up a month's worth of food, three times at our pick-up locations located within both counties.

By continuing to keep kids fed throughout the summer, it is empowering these students to stay nourished and not worry about where their next meal will come from while they are out of school.  We are looking forward to be able to provide food to our students throughout the summer in hopes they will be able to enjoy their break as much as possible. 

If you haven't already, will you consider to sponsor a family over the summer? There are three levels that you can donate today for our Summer Program: 

• $35 - Feeds a student for a week
• $175 - Feeds a student for a month
• $375 - Feeds a student for the whole summer

We would like to extend a thank you Stubbs Orthodontics for continuing to support Food For Thought and for hosting the Peanut Butter & Jelly Drive at their office!

Through the month of June, bring in a jar peanut butter and jelly into the Stubbs Orthodontics office and you will be entered to win a beach package!  You can also enter the contest by "liking" and "sharing" their Facebook Post about the contest or Stubbs Orthodontics.  For every new "like or share", Stubbs Orthodontics will donate $1 to Food For Thought directly.  Food For Thought is grateful to be the beneficiary of this food drive.

More information can be found here on Stubbs Orthodontic Facebook Page.

We are grateful for the continued support of Justin Gaffrey and his art gallery! Food for Thought is honored to be the beneficiary of Justin Gaffrey's Exhibition Opening: "LIFE STILL."

“LIFE STILL,” is an opening reception for Justin's new collection of paintings!

During this event, a drawing will be held for a 16 x 20 Hand Painted Artist Edition of a new artwork. Tickets for the drawing are $20 each and can be purchased at the Gallery from 5/2 - 5/22.  All proceeds will benefit Food For Thought Outreach Inc. and the winner will be announced at 8pm.

When: Wednesday May 22nd, 6-9 pm

Location: Justin Gaffrey Gallery

Additional Details:  Please join us for complimentary drinks and appetizers. Beer will be provided by Props Craft Brewery.

Those in attendance will have the unique opportunity to purchase new works from the collection and several different limited-edition, archival prints from the "LIFE STILL" collection.

More event information can be found HERE

Thank you Justin and team for your continued devotion to the community by supporting Food For Thought through your own donations and time, as well as through the DCWAF! We are thankful for community members like you.

We are so thankful for our volunteers at here at Food For Thought, and love when people volunteer their passions and talents.  In addition to volunteer opportunities for the backpack program, we also use volunteers in the Full Circle Kitchen and Full Circle Garden.  Today, we would like to thank Richard McCord and Ryan McNay from Marrow Private Chefs for the time the have spent helping in the Full Circle Kitchen and share a little more about them:

Richard & Ryan run Marrow Private Chefs, a boutique catering company that specializes in preparing restaurant quality, fine dining meals in your home.  These two became involved with FFT in the fall of 2018 while helping with Hurricane Michael relief, providing food to those affected by the hurricane.  After learning more about the FFT program, they both knew they wanted to continue to help in the Full Circle Kitchen to share their love of food and cooking.

The Marrow guys have lead a quite a few cooking classes for students and they "love getting to interact with the kids! We have truly enjoyed the opportunity to share our passion for food and cooking with the next generation. Whether they have a desire to work in the culinary field or simply want to be a better home cook, it is great to work with kids that want to learn!"

During one of the classes, they ventured to make homemade taffy, which the students absolutely loved, as well as Ryan and Richard.  They said, "Who doesn’t like homemade starburst?! Aside from that it is incredibly rewarding to work with folks who are so dedicated to helping others!"

We truly are grateful for the Richard and Ryan who take the time out of their busy catering business to help teach and make an impact on the students who take part in the Full Circle Kitchen.

You can learn more about how to become a volunteer HERE