Last week we at Food For Thought were honored to have Paula Deen stop by the Santa Rosa Beach Pantry! Paula and her foundation, The Bag Lady, graciously donated a $2,500 grant for Food for Thought.  

We are excited that Paula Deen has opened up two new restaurants in our area, "Paula Deen's Family Kitchen," in Panama City as well as a location at the Destin Commons.  Her new restaurant will also be partnering with Food For Thought to donate un-used or leftover food to be used in the Full Circle Kitchen cooking classes.  This un-used food will be air-sealed so that it can be kept as fresh as possible for the cooking classes. 

During her visit last week, Paula was able to see and help kids from the Walton Academy cook some of her very own recipes in the Full Circle Kitchen (pork chops and brussel sprouts), and she even leant a hand to the volunteer packing groups that were busy in the pantry prepping backpacks for the weekend.

Before leaving, Paula was even so kind to share in a blessing of the meal the students from Walton Academy had prepared.

We are so thankful for Paula Deen's generosity and look forward to working more together in the future to assist the children in our community.  

You can find out more information on Paula's visit to her new restaurant on the local news site, WEARTV.

We are so thankful for our seasonal sponsors who have helped bridge the hunger gap while school is out of session.  This past school year, Apex Disaster Specialists and Bay Baits were our seasonal sponsors who enabled 600 families to be be fed over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.  Ensuring that our kids are fed over school breaks is crucial, as on average kids on free or reduced meal programs miss ten meals over Thanksgiving break and 20 meals over Christmas break.

Our work continues this summer. Would you consider to become a seasonal sponsor to help support children in need in your community while they are out of school and removed from the free and or reduced meals they depend on?  600 families will receive a month's worth of food three times over the summer months with your support of $10k.

If you are interested in becoming a seasonal sponsor and have more questions, please email our team today: Support@fftfl.org

Learn More Information Here to become a Seasonal Sponsor: 

https://fftfl.org/pages/corporate-sponsorship

Our Crawfish Boil is THIS SUNDAY, and we want you to join us! If you have not signed up already, now is the time! 100% of all proceeds will be used for Food For Thought's Summer Program; you do not want to miss out on this fun family event!

The Crawfish Boil will be held at our Santa Rosa Pantry (Directions can be found HERE) from 12-3pm on Sunday, May 5th.  We will be featuring the culinary talents of Michael McIntosh (Henderson Beachwalk Cafe) and David Cunningham (Formerly a Chef at Trebeche).  During the Crawfish Boil, you will also be able to enjoy the music of Scott Rockwood and Friends.  This is a family friendly event, so please come join us!

Tickets can be purchased HERE our site.

$20 for Adults // $10 for Children

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!

We are honored to have been a beneficiary of the 13th Annual Chi Chi Miguel Weekend, which raised over $1 Million for eight Gulf Coast non-profit organizations! We want to give a huge thank you to the Emeril Lagasse Foundation, who organized this fun filled weekend, and who has been a supporter of Food For Thought Outreach for so many years. 

During the Chi Chi Miguel Throwdown Benefit Auction and BBQ, two of our students from the Emeril Lagasse Full Circle Kitchen, along with two students from Emeril's Culinary program at the Seaside School cooked and served their own culinary menu to attendees of the fundraiser.  It was great to see how these students are benefiting and learning from these culinary programs in our area, helped made possible by fundraisers like these.

Thank you again to all the winemakers, chefs, volunteers and sponsors that made this event possible; it truly was a fun day and an honor to be a part of!