As school begins, local charity Food for Thought, based in Santa Rosa Beach in Walton County, is gearing up to provide much needed food for students in need.

Now in its ninth year, Food For Thought provides backpacks filled with healthy, easy to prepare food to students who are dependent on free or reduced school meals.

Food For Thought serves more than 3,000 students every week in 32 schools in Okaloosa and Walton counties.

Their pantry shelves are mostly empty, and they are seeking help from the community. There are several big initiatives going on right now that can help stock the shelves at their pantries, including the In for 10 campaign, the upcoming fundraiser Stock the Pantry, and the opportunities to sponsor schools and students.

Stock the Pantry will be held on August 23 at the Santa Rosa Beach pantry The cost is $5 or 5 donated items to attend. The Stock the Pantry event will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Aug. 23 at Food For Thought Outreach, 132 Market Street in Santa Rosa Beach.

In for 10 is an outreach to have 500 backpacks filled with 10 items each (from a list provided by Food For Thought), and as of now, only 250 of those backpacks have been claimed.

The sponsor-a-student and sponsor-a-school initiatives are ongoing, and many of the schools have yet to be sponsored.

Food for Thought looks to increase knowledge of their program in Okaloosa county as a growing number of students they serve are from this county.

Please contact them if you’d like to sponsor a school or help with any of the other initiatives. For more information about donating or volunteering to help this very worth cause, visit their website, find them on Facebook or call 850-290-4056.