Manna seeks new home — again
- April 7, 2015
- / Shannon Nickinson
- / community-dashboard
Manna Food Pantries want to be a good neighbor.
Which is why the nonprofit community food pantry will not build on property on Hayne Street they purchased last year from the Escambia School District.
The new site would get Manna out of the flood-plagued East Gonzalez Street location they have occupied for nearly 20 years. But neighbors’ concerns about the footprint of the new facility, and the impact it may have on their property values, spurred Manna to go another way, as InWeekly has reported.
“We have always been a good community neighbor,” said DeDe Flounlacker, the executive director of the the nonprofit. “We have been where we are and we will be where we go.”
The Hayne Street property, site of the old Pickens School, “was not the best fit for Manna in the long run,” she said. “We’ve listened to the neighbors concerns.”
Which means Manna is now looking for a buyer to the property they paid $125,000 cash for last fall. Flounlacker also said they likely will have to consider a capital campaign to begin fundraising for a new facility.
[caption id="attachment_6338" align="alignright" width="450"]
Manna Food Pantries warehouse at Tarragona and Gonzalez streets in downtown Pensacola.[/caption]
That effort could move forward in earnest later this year.
“We are committed to moving from here,” Flounlacker says of the Gonzalez Street site. “There’s nothing we can do to mitigate flooding at this site, short of raising the building up six feet in the air.”
Indeed, Flounlacker says, a hard rain in January left a 19-inch-high water line on an RV parked in the front parking lot. That rainfall was nothing compared to the epic deluge that fell last April, ruining the warehouse’s stores of food.
“The flood was a blessing in a lot of ways,” Flounlacker says. “It literally and figuratively washed away many things for us. It gave us the opportunity to say, ‘how can we be better and offer more quality service.’”
Capital campaign coming later this year
Flounlacker said the board and staff are open to many options, including purchasing an existing warehouse that they could renovate or building a new building from scratch.
They want to stay in the 32501 or 32502 ZIP code areas, because that is where the bulk of Manna’s clients come from, she says.
Flounlacker said Sperry Vann Ness is working with Manna on the real estate side of things.
Manna’s annual operating cash budget is about $650,000; the value of the food they store on premises to distribute to those in need varies with the amount of food on hand.
Typically, Flounlacker says, they have 500,000-900,000 pounds of food in the warehouse. The U.S. Department of Agriculture values a pound of food at $1.70 per pound.
Administration and full-time staff is 6.7 percent of overall budget; Flounlacker says there are seven full-time positions. The rest of the work is done by volunteers, who in total amass some 400 hours a week of work.
Fitting the zoning
For land development code purposes, Manna is classified as similar to a grocery store, said Sherry Morris, City of Pensacola Planning Services Administrator.
Morris says property with a commercial zoning designation is likely the best fit for Manna’s new facility.
Any property with an R-NC (residential neighborhood commercial) designation — like the Hayne Street property — would require a variance approved by the planning board and the city council if the facility would be larger than 4,000 square feet.
“If they got (property) in an industrial or commercial area, they won’t need that exemption,” Morris said.
Flounlacker says she feels good about the prospects for buyers for the Gonzalez Street site. She also feels positive about the prospects of finding a new home for the food pantry, which since the April flood has helped 7,970 families in need.
Wherever they go, the site has to be accessible to the community.
“Once we go where we’re going that’s our home for decades,” Flounlacker says.
Manna Food Pantries warehouse at Tarragona and Gonzalez streets in downtown Pensacola.[/caption]
That effort could move forward in earnest later this year.
“We are committed to moving from here,” Flounlacker says of the Gonzalez Street site. “There’s nothing we can do to mitigate flooding at this site, short of raising the building up six feet in the air.”
Indeed, Flounlacker says, a hard rain in January left a 19-inch-high water line on an RV parked in the front parking lot. That rainfall was nothing compared to the epic deluge that fell last April, ruining the warehouse’s stores of food.
“The flood was a blessing in a lot of ways,” Flounlacker says. “It literally and figuratively washed away many things for us. It gave us the opportunity to say, ‘how can we be better and offer more quality service.’”
Capital campaign coming later this year
Flounlacker said the board and staff are open to many options, including purchasing an existing warehouse that they could renovate or building a new building from scratch.
They want to stay in the 32501 or 32502 ZIP code areas, because that is where the bulk of Manna’s clients come from, she says.
Flounlacker said Sperry Vann Ness is working with Manna on the real estate side of things.
Manna’s annual operating cash budget is about $650,000; the value of the food they store on premises to distribute to those in need varies with the amount of food on hand.
Typically, Flounlacker says, they have 500,000-900,000 pounds of food in the warehouse. The U.S. Department of Agriculture values a pound of food at $1.70 per pound.
Administration and full-time staff is 6.7 percent of overall budget; Flounlacker says there are seven full-time positions. The rest of the work is done by volunteers, who in total amass some 400 hours a week of work.
Fitting the zoning
For land development code purposes, Manna is classified as similar to a grocery store, said Sherry Morris, City of Pensacola Planning Services Administrator.
Morris says property with a commercial zoning designation is likely the best fit for Manna’s new facility.
Any property with an R-NC (residential neighborhood commercial) designation — like the Hayne Street property — would require a variance approved by the planning board and the city council if the facility would be larger than 4,000 square feet.
“If they got (property) in an industrial or commercial area, they won’t need that exemption,” Morris said.
Flounlacker says she feels good about the prospects for buyers for the Gonzalez Street site. She also feels positive about the prospects of finding a new home for the food pantry, which since the April flood has helped 7,970 families in need.
Wherever they go, the site has to be accessible to the community.
“Once we go where we’re going that’s our home for decades,” Flounlacker says.
Recent Posts
-
CivicCon launches with a look at good growth in cities
-
Building stronger brains one baby, one parent at a time
-
SCI debuts commercial on Early Learning City
-
Entrecon: World class speakers and an opportunity to sharpen skills
-
PYP Quality of Life survey 2017
-
EntreCon Pensacola 2016: A look back
-
Leadership tip: getting better employee takeaways
-
Leadership tip: be interested instead of interesting
-
Leadership tip: delivering difficult messages
-
Brain Bags boost Arc, Early Childhood Court programs