Destin Harvest received an award of $25,000 from St. Joe Community Foundation to aid with food-rescue and hunger relief activities in Walton County for the remainder of 2024 and into 2025! This is a tremendous help to our operation and the programs we make deliveries to in Freeport, Defuniak Springs, and Santa Rosa Beach! The need in Walton County is immense and having access to free foods through local programs make a huge difference for struggling households. DH currently makes deliveries three days a week in Walton County to programs that include Caring and Sharing, Open Door Pantry, Black Creek Methodist Church, COPE Center, Everlasting Word Church, Newlife Adventist of Defuniak Springs, and Freeport Community Food Program.
Destin Harvest’s staff, board of directors, stakeholders, and recipient programs are truly grateful for St. Joe Foundation’s substantial support for our operation and mission to bridge the gap between food surplus and local hunger. Thank you, St. Joe Foundation!
The 38th Annual Charity Auction at Harbor Docks last month was a wonderful success. The event that raises funds for both Take a Kid Fishing and Destin Harvest had a great turnout with tons of exciting items that were donated by local businesses and artists. 
A total of $62,000 was raised that evening, with $10k awarded to Destin Harvest!
Having recovered from several costly repairs on our refrigerated food trucks this summer, this support could not have come at a better time for our operation.
We are tremendously grateful for Harbor Docks continued support for our program throughout each year. 
Thank you Harbor Docks!
Destin Harvest has been awarded $20k from The Alys Foundation to aid in our food rescue operating costs to Bridge the Gap Between Food Surplus and Hunger! Destin Harvest and its recipient programs are truly grateful for this tremendous show of support. This contribution constitutes the difference of 111,100 pounds of free food, or meals, that DH will connect to local food programs!
The food distributions at NWFL Fairgrounds on July 26th and August 16th both had tremendous turnouts. DH and volunteers served over 500 cars on July 26th and over 760 cars on August 16th!! Recipients of these distributions received sausage, eggs, watermelon, grape jelly, peanut butter, yogurt, spaghetti, pasta sauce, produce boxes, and more. Destin Harvest is awaiting confirmation for the next food distribution to take place in either Okaloosa or Walton County. We are extremely grateful for Feeding the Gulf Coast, all of our volunteers, including Beulah First Baptist Church, Northwest Florida Fairgrounds, and Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office for making these events a true success!
Through collaborative and exceptional opportunities presented by Feeding the Gulf Coast (FTGC), Destin Harvest (DH) and local organizers have distributed an additional 70k pounds of free foods into Okaloosa and Walton County. These food distributions are different from DH’s daily operation of connecting food surpluses from local grocers and food retailers to food programs in Okaloosa and Walton County. DH organizes teams of volunteers and community advocates at local sites for FTGC to deliver an 18-wheeler refrigerated truck loaded with free foods. These foods are palletized and dropped from the FTGC truck, and then staged by DH and volunteers to hand out to 300 – 400 participating vehicles. A DH truck stays on-site to store surplus pallets of refrigerated items until the pallets on the ground are exhausted. People receiving food from these events are returning home with fresh eggs, milk, yogurt, packages of chicken tenders, watermelon, peanut butter, jelly, boxes of assorted produce, bags of potatoes, and more.
On May 18th, DH’s team, volunteer teams from Beulah Baptist Church, Sylvania Heights, along with off-duty deputies from Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, all worked together to distribute 35,000 pounds of food to over 300 vehicles at Northwest Florida Fairgrounds. It was a huge success in the face of inclement weather and serious logistical challenges. Below are some of the pictures from that food give-away.
The food distribution at Freeport Commons on June 15th had a tremendous turnout, with over 400 vehicles being served. Huge thank you to New Life Adventist Church and Walton County Sheriff’s Posse for helping plan and volunteering to make this event possible. Below are pictures from the food give-away at Freeport Commons. (Photo Credit – Micki Glenn)
Team at Children in Crisis in Fort Walton Beach, FL receives Strawberry Milk donated to DH from City Produce
City Produce, local produce distributor in Fort Walton Beach, donated a pallet of strawberry milk to DH last week. Feeding programs were very excited to receive the refreshing treat. Our drivers never know what they will pick up and it’s tremendous feeling to find out what we will be handing off to grateful recipients each day. Without valuable donors like City Produce and local grocery stores, this simply would not be possible.
Thank you City Produce for giving back and putting smiles on the faces of volunteers and staff at local recipient charities that benefit from DH’s free deliveries.
We are immensely fortunate for a community that’s willing to serve. Thanks to a hardworking team of volunteers and DH’s valuable partners, over 500 households received bountiful boxes of meat, fresh veggies, fruits, fruit cups, cereal, peanut butter, rice, among many other wholesome items on January 30th, Saturday morning. That’s 225 more vehicles than what we had in October of last year! People are hurting and food is immediate. DH aims to bridge the gap!
None of this would have been made possible without the support of Feeding The Gulf Coast, NWFL Fairgrounds, United Way of Emerald Coast, Step One Automotive, FWB Police Department, and Harbor Docks Seafood Market.
DH will continue to seek opportunities to secure bulk volumes of food to host more food distributions throughout 2021!
Volunteers preparing boxes at NWFL Fairgrounds
The joy of helping out!
More volunteers hard at work!
Boxes, boxes, and more boxes of good food!
Working together to bridge the gap!
Pallets of boxes for the drive through distribution
Do you see the pure glee in the background?
Recycling boxes to give out more food boxes
Mood goal for 2021
Thousand-yard stare of food distribution logistics
Volunteer staging pallets of food boxes before cars drivethrough
Through the coordinated effort of Destin Harvest, United Way Emerald Coast, Northwest Florida Fair, Fort Walton Beach Police Department, Bigun’s Hope Disaster Response Services inc, and others, 30,000 pounds of fresh veggies and fruit were distributed out 300 to 400 cars and several local churches and feeding programs this morning. The produce was made available through the USDA Farmers to Families Food Box program. We plan to continue this effort at the fairgrounds for as long as the resources last and the need prevails. We are truly fortunate for the leadership and coordination of all our community partners!
This new program is one of three ways DH is responding to the mass hunger needs created by the local economic damages of COVID-19.
To learn more about what DH is doing to address rampant food insecurity in Okaloosa and Walton County in response to the Coronavirus, click on the link below.
Here are some pictures and videos of the event this past Saturday at the Northwest Florida Fairgrounds.
Snapshot of USDA Farmers to Families Food Box Giveaway at NWFL FairgroundsForklifting pallets of mixed fruits and veggies off City Produce’s trailer.Loading up the trunks of cars with boxes straight from the palletsAll 1,200 boxes had the same 25 lbs. of apples, oranges, grapefruit, potatoes, and onionsUnited Way of Emerald Coast, Destin Harvest, Biggun’s Hope, and Parker Destin.
Destin Harvest has never experienced the need as great as it is right now. All throughout NWFL, hundreds of families that depend on seasonal work have lost their fulltime income, or are now working minimum hours at reduced wages, due to the devastating economic damages incurred by Coronavirus. These hardworking families and individuals rely on full-time seasonal work to carry them financially for eight months to a year and require additional part-time to full-time work just to have disposable income. Â
Local food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, churches, and similar efforts have been overwhelmed by food insecurity prior to COVID-19. Some agencies have reduced their services or closed altogether. The programs that continue to operate are on the front lines every day and cannot possibly meet the mounting need.
DH has been securing more food than ever by partnering with other responders, food banks, and reaching out to new resources to assist in this major crisis. An immediate relief has been Farm Share foods, a statewide program that warehouses top quality perishable and nonperishable foods and provide access for free to feeding programs throughout Florida. Through the assistance of groups such as PERT, Harbor Docks, Event Tents, and many others, DH began mobilizing an additional 50k pounds every week of fresh fruits, vegetables, drinks, eggs, meats, and nonperishable items.
Farm Share Food Drive at Morgans Sports Complex 4/11/2020
DH has been distributing these foods out to recipient feeding programs and organizing mass drive through food box giveaways, jointly with other teams throughout Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, and Walton County. DH continues to make Farm Share runs to Quincy weekly and distributes it all out for free to local feeding programs throughout the week.
As Farm Share foods address the needs of local feeding programs, DH is now utilizing another resource to continue to provide for mass drive through food box giveaways. USDA launched a program in direct response to food insecurity nationwide called Farmers to Families Food Box program. USDA is buying up 3 billion in agricultural yield as farmers prepare hundreds of thousands of food boxes. Produce distributors throughout the country are securing the boxed fresh produce from the farmers and delivering directly to feeding sites.
DH is teaming up with United Way of Emerald Coast this Saturday, May 23rd, to distribute 1,200 boxes to cars at the NWFL Fairgrounds in Shalimar. Each box weighs 25 pounds and will be made up of fruits and veggies.
Combining daily food pickups from grocery stores (30k pounds a week), weekly Farm Share runs (20k – 40k pounds a week), and USDA’s FTFFB program (30k pounds a week), DH is currently mobilizing between 80k to 90k pounds of free food into Okaloosa and Walton County every week! These resources and combined efforts have been crucial to addressing the increasing local demand for food.
To learn how you can support our efforts, follow the link below.
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