As we are prepping for the Summer Meal Program, Food For Thought will be hosting three separate food drives in Walton and Okaloosa county.  At each location, the Food For Thought Van will be present, where you can bring a pre-packaged food item to donate for the summer meal program.  There are 600 families that are part of the FFT Summer Meal program, creating a need for 6,600 food items to be distributed to these families.

Here are the dates and locations for each of the "Cram the Van" Food Drives so you can help:

At the Pizza-by-the-Sea, Watercolor Crossings Location, if you bring 5 food items to donate, they will give you 50% off of a pizza purchased (same day).

At the Destin Winn-Dixie and at Grand Boulevard, bring in 10 items to Cram the Van, and you will be entered into a drawing.

Suggested pantry items:

During each of these food drives, a Food For Thought Staff member will be there to answer any questions, as well as share current volunteer opportunities.  

Look for one of the Food for Thought Vans at each of these locations to drop food off.  Thank you for your support to keep kids from being hungry over the summer!

 More Event Info HERE

We are very excited for the official ribbon cutting ceremony and grand opening of our Defuniak Springs Warehouse! The opening of this warehouse is a big move to help serve the needs of our community, as the Food For Thought program continues to grow. 

The new Defuniak Springs location will now be the third pantry location, allowing for the first time, Food for Thought to store and house three months worth of packaged food for the backpack and snack programs. This will help prevent any shortage or delays in receiving and delivering food, as this pantry is a central location to serve as the "pull center" for both the Destin and Santa Rosa Beach locations. This new location will also allow FFT to expand services, be able to source better food pricing and the size of the warehouse will allow for an easier time for our volunteers to help fill and deliver backpacks. 

We are extremely grateful to our donors and volunteers who have made this new warehouse location possible! The generous contributions and donations of many Food For Thought supporters made the warehouse vision a reality over the last 15 months.  We are looking forward to see how this new location will positively impact to serve our community!

For the last eight summers, Food For Thought Outreach has provided food to students in need while they are on Summer Break.  Students that are free and reduced meal programs during the school year, miss on average 110 meals over the summer, which is why Food For Thought does not stop providing meals to these kids over Summer 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. 

As the heartbeat of Food For Thought Outreach, here is an update to what our Backpack Program currently provides.  Each week, students who are on a free and reduced meal plan at school, receive a backpack of food to bridge the hunger gap they face over the weekend at home.

Food For Thought Fun Facts:

• 33rd school added during the 2018/29 school year
• (this program began with one school just 10 years ago!)
• 3,300 Students are served each week in two counties
• 40K food items are purchased and distributed every week
• 250 volunteers are needed every week to fill the backpacks

In order to fill the backpacks with 10 food items for these students, it takes $5 per student, per week, as well as volunteers to pack and deliver these backpacks to schools across Okaloosa and Walton Counties. 

We are very proud of how this program has evolved over the last ten years and excited to see how the backpack program will continue to grow to serve more families in need in our community.  

Learn more today to volunteer or donate at: www.fftfl.org

With warmer weather now upon us, it is the time to begin our Spring planting and harvest for the The Full Circle Garden, which is now growing produce at two locations; the Destin Pantry and the Walton County Academy Campus.  This Spring we are planting a variety of vegetables to be harvested for use in both our Full Circle Kitchen cooking classes as well as for our seasonal program support.  Through these gardens, we are working to provide more fresh food to kids in our programs and give them the opportunity to see how fresh food grows, is harvested and then ready to eat.

Food For Thought Fun Fact: Every month 26K items of fresh food are produced from our Gardens! 

Destin Pantry Garden

Walton County Academy Garden

Since our gardens have been established, we have volunteers, kids from our Full Circle Kitchen program, and other groups come to help keep our gardens growing. If you have a green thumb, or just enjoy being outside and would like to volunteer in either of our gardens this spring or summer, let us know! volunteer@fftfl.org