NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. – A Nassau County charity known for feeding hundreds of people a week expanded its reach for a special event on Saturday.
Tucked away off US 17 in Yulee, stands Gracie’s Kitchen on Koen Lane. It is the place that held a drive-thru food distribution for the very first time in partnership with Farm Share.
Maryellen Crocker is the director of Gracie’s Kitchen. The charity has been in operation since 2009 and serves dinner to people in need four times a week.
“I feel like the community needs something like this,” Crocker said. “We know how many people come here for dinner and we don’t serve dinner every night. We know that they need groceries on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. We felt like this would help round out their week.”
Crocker said Gracie’s Kitchen feeds between 250 and 300 people every week, meaning it serves more than 4,000 people a month.
It dished out more than 42,000 meals in 2023.
The food given out Saturday to each driver was enough to feed a family of four.
The distribution brought out plenty of volunteers, including George Cooper with Farm Share.
“I love it,” said Cooper, who has been a volunteer for nearly a decade. “I have been going like that ever since I was a kid. I saw my mother out in the country in Georgia give people things all the time. By the time I would get back home, and walking down the road, someone would bring us something.”
Cooper said he never hesitates to be a part of food giveaways. It’s meant even more to him over the last two years following a cancer diagnosis.
“I am a cancer patient,” Cooper said. “Therefore, it just makes me feel good that I am doing something, and it keeps me going. I wanted to do something to give back and help people.”
Handing out the food during Saturday’s events resulted to burdens being lifted for some people.
“We have never met someone who did not say thank you, who does not appreciate what we do,” Crocker said.
Gracie’s Kitchen continues doing good for a community and that community is thankful for it.