On Sept. 6, Sharing & Caring of Okaloosa County, Inc. commemorated the completion of its recent building expansion project with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house to show off Fort Walton Beach food bank’s new facilities. The project included a 900-square-foot addition to the east end of the building at 126 Beal Parkway and saw the complete renovation of the structure’s interior. The expansion was made possible by grants from Impact100 of Northwest Florida and the John Pettengill Trust.
“We more than doubled our food pantry space,” said Sharing & Caring President Ken Winzeler. The expansion also includes a larger lobby, three private offices for interviewing clients, more office space and more room for storing the food and personal care items that are distributed to those in need. The pantry remained open for almost all of the approximately year-long construction period.
“We’re very proud that in the entire year that we did this, we were only closed for three weeks,” said Winzeler. “So, we were able to keep distributing food to our clients.”
Sharing & Caring first opened its doors in 1985, based in a building donated by the First Baptist Church of Fort Walton Beach. They relocated to their present location in 1992. The current building, leased from First Presbyterian Church, was renovated extensively by volunteer labor and generous donations from the community. Over the intervening decades, they’ve served as an emergency food source for qualifying clients, also providing personal care items and vouchers for prescription medications based on income. The facility’s food bank is available to anyone who resides between Hurlburt Field in the west, Destin in the East, and Eglin Air Force Base to the north. Their clients include families, children, seniors, the homeless, and those who are unemployed. Winzeler estimates that the pantry serves about 30 families a day and more than 15,000 clients in the past year alone. Over half of the food provided at the pantry comes from donations brought in by the community, local churches and businesses. The rest is purchased by Sharing & Caring using financial donations. The increased food pantry space allows the non-profit organization to buy more food in bulk, making their donated dollars go further.
Currently, the facility is staffed entirely by 41 volunteers who operate the offices and food pantry Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. For those interested in helping out, Sharing & Caring volunteers are available during business hours to accept food and monetary donations as well as personal care items. Tax-deductible monetary donations can also be made on the organization’s website: https://www.sharing-n-caring.org. They are always looking for volunteers to help staff the office and food pantry. For more information on volunteering or the food bank, email support.sncfwb@gccoxmail.com or call (850) 244-0778.
