- March 26, 2025
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Every Wednesday, over 150 Flagler County families line up outside of the Santa Maria Del Mar Church's Learning Center.
They're greeted by volunteers with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul food pantry, lined up at tables outside with bags of food already packed — canned goods, fruit, snacks and fresh meat.
It's an operation Food Pantry Manager Judith Roy started in 2019 after the Flagler County Resource Center closed, which also shuttered the food pantry run by Church Women United in the same building.
Roy is facing a similar dilemma today: The food pantry has outgrown the room it uses in the church's Learning Center, and as the church continues to grow, the pastor is also in need of the space. The food pantry needs to find a new home by Sep. 1.
"We've been here rent free," Roy said. "Utility free. We haven't paid anything and the church has been extremely supportive, but we need a space. We need a bigger space."
And, being located in Flagler Beach, rents are high. SVDP wants to use the donations they receive to continue to help people, Roy said, and the higher the rent, the less people they can serve.
In March 2019, the food pantry serviced 23 families a week, SVDP President Charles Langlois said. In October 2024, the food pantry served 167 families weekly.
Annually, the food pantry served 6,175 families in fiscal year 2023-2024, up from 3,529 served in fiscal year 2022-2023. If the pantry keeps growing at its current rate, SVDP is projecting it will serve 8,184 families by the end of the current fiscal year.
What the food pantry needs is a storage area — for the donations of food, freezers and refrigerators. If someone has extra space on the barrier island, Langlois said, the pantry would like to share it.
"We want to be able to service Eastern Flagler County," Langlois said. "We have more than enough pantries out on Route 1 in Bunnell, and north. What's unique about us is where we're located."
Roy said SVDP runs a "very personal pantry."
"In other words, we talk to people," Roy said. "My husband goes down and talks to them while they're waiting in line. They line up at 7, we open at 9."
The food pantry only serves Flagler County residents. In addition to food, SVDP also helps connect them with other resources in the area, such as free community dinners, rent assistance and other area food pantries. SDVP also distributes food bags for the homeless.
"It's not going to stop growing, because there's such a need," Roy said.
The increasing cost of living is also contributing to the rising number of families in need, Langlois said.
"A lot of people that come here for food say, 'Because you give me this food, I can afford to pay my bills,'" he said.
Roy is at the church's Learning Center at 5 a.m. every Wednesday to prepare for the food distribution. It's when she signs off on the donated meat from Publix, an effort organized through Feeding Northeast Florida. The donations from the community have enabled them to continue the food pantry's mission, Roy said.
They just need to find a new home.
"We're just putting it out there and praying and praying and praying, and maybe somebody will come forward and say, 'Well, here's a place,'" Roy said.
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