Hundreds of people turned out the morning of Thursday, Sept. 24 for the official opening of a greatly expanded Second Harvest of the Big Bend headquarters in Tallahassee. The event was so special it even brought the organization’s previous director all the way from Wisconsin.
Monique Ellsworth – now Monique Tracey – headed up Second Harvest in 2022 when the organization launched a massive capital campaign to expand and refurbish its headquarters near Tallahassee International Airport. That campaign would ultimately pull in thirteen million dollars. And Tracey, who left the organization earlier this year to head up Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, says she wasn’t really surprised.
“I believed in our community. I believed that we had the gumption, the grit, the willingness, the heart to make this happen. And today we’re celebrating an endless series of yes, yes, yes that made this building possible.”
The 28,000 square foot addition was made possible by a $13 million capital campaign along with some funding from the Florida Legislature. Second Harvest Board Vice Chair Melanie Leitman says that expansive new addition to the building gives volunteers their own unrestricted working space.
“We can really maximize the volunteer’s experience and footprint because we can bring a lot more volunteers in at once. And so that’s really a great way for the community to come and see what we’ve built here and engage in helping our neighbors and combatting food insecurity in the greater region.”
That region covers 16 North Florida counties.
