Holiday Miracles abound within Food for Thought Services

Holiday miracles come in all shapes and sizes. Spend one day in one of the Food For Thought Outreach Pantries and you’ll see miracles one after another and just maybe you’ll feel your heart grow three sizes.

Food For Thought has grown so rapidly and by such leaps and bounds over the last year, many suppliers and food providers can’t keep up with demand. This is where you see one of the first miracles. Through social networking and community connections, a quick Facebook post alerted the community to the fact that Food For Thought was not going to receive the necessary 1,000+ paper grocery bags in time for their holiday preparations.

Within an hour, Winn Dixie in Miramar Beach offered to donate the needed bags. Miracle.

Food For Thought has grown from feeding 6 students in their first year, to feeding 1,620 children each week of this current school year. That’s 400% growth over the last three years and over 700 additional students from this time last year. Food For Thought provides these children with weekly backpacks of healthy, easy to prepare food items to close the gap between missed meals over the weekends. During school breaks, the organization continues their work. Food For Thought provides enough food to cover every meal missed over the school break which equates to at least 26 meals that the school would have provided on the free and reduced lunch program plus a traditional holiday meal for the family to share. Miracle.

This Winter Break, Food For Thought fed over 500 families across Okaloosa and Walton Counties from Freeport to Fort Walton Beach. Over 500 gifts have been donated, another 200 books, and countless volunteer hours have been logged during one of the busiest times of the year. Wells Fargo chose to volunteer at both pantries over two days. Sundog Books in Seaside, FL brought food and books for the students.

The Tree House Montessori School had their younger students come by to learn about volunteering and donated toiletry kits. More and more additional donations pleasantly surprised the staff and volunteers during their open donation times. Miracle. Miracle. Miracles.

Although, the organization has been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support this year – their job is not done. Food For Thought needs your continued support to help restock and replenish their pantries. Incredibly, you can feed a child for the Spring semester for just $90.

To support Food For Thought Outreach for your End of Year Giving or to join the FFT Membership program to support a child for the Spring semester, please email info@fftfl.org or visit fftfl.org to donate.