A Nonprofit’s Efforts to Tackle Food Insecurity in Northeast Florida

The office welcomes volunteers into the Epic-Cure St. Augustine warehouse. This is where volunteers go to organize the behind-the-scenes work, complete paperwork and store items, such as bags for their markets.

Posters and papers are displayed at the warehouse entry to keep volunteers informed. They serve as reminders of what can and cannot be brought to their markets, how things should be sorted, and what stores are bringing their leftover goods that day.

Volunteer Mora Stanley sorts vegetables recently brought from local grocery stores to the warehouse. Epic Cure receives leftover food from Publix, Winn Dixie, Dollar General and more.

A crate of vegetables are presented by volunteer Lisa Chismark. These vegetables have been sorted through and will be sent to an Epic-Cure market.

Boxes of food on a pallet wait to be brought to local farms. Epic-Cure’s goal is to eliminate food waste, which is partially accomplished by bringing expired food to farms to feed animals so that none is thrown away.

Piles of USDA food items are sorted through and placed on one wall of the warehouse. All USDA products that enter the warehouse must be kept separate from the other items.

Refrigerated food items are sorted through before distribution. All refrigerated items are kept in a separate, colder part of the warehouse to be preserved.

Eye-level view of the shelving used for storage in the Epic-Cure warehouse. Sorted food and empty boxes waiting to be filled are kept here so they are easily accessible to volunteers.

Recipes for cooking classes that Epic-Cure offers students are displayed on the warehouse’s second floor. Students are taught how to make meals from various cultures to prepare them for the future and a potential career in the culinary industry.

Medical supplies are stored on the second level of the warehouse. These are used for Epic-Cure’s partnership with the Wildflower Clinic, a local non-profit that provides medical care to underserved and uninsured adults in St. Johns County.

Aerial view of the sorted food and volunteer work at the Epic-Cure warehouse.

View of artwork drawn on the chalkboard of Epic-Cure’s warehouse. Volunteers from many different backgrounds have come together to run the program and all it offers.