On Wednesday, Pinellas County's most generous givers packed an otherwise barren warehouse in an industrial stretch of Pinellas Park.
They were celebrating plans for a large, free-standing local food bank to better serve the hungry in south and mid-Pinellas County, a facility expected to open early next year.
“Hunger is a reality, a daily reality for our community, from school-aged children to seniors. In fact, the need for healthy and nutritious food has increased remarkably over the last five years right here in Pinellas County,” said Pinellas County Commissioner, Ken Welch.
Officials recognized the need for expanded services when the statistics rolled in.
“One in seven adults in our community doesn’t know where their next meal will come from. One in four children in our community are chronically hungry. For many of those school students, their only meal of the day is the meal they get in school,” said Welch.
Each month, 60,000 hungry members of south and mid-Pinellas county get their meals from the St. Petersburg Free Clinic, a number that has doubled in the last six years.
Conveniently just off of Interstate 275 and U.S. 19, the new building lies in the heart of Joe's Creek Industrial Park at 3115 44th Ave.
The price tag on the building was $820,000; the purchase was made possible only by head of St. Petersburg based-firm Kobie Marketing, Bonnie Hechtkopf.
“Because we’ve been so successful, I’m fortunate that I can give that,” said Hechtkopf.
Hechtkopf made the near million-dollar purchase as a gift in memory of her husband and co-founder of Kobie Marketing, Jared Hechtkopf, who passed in 2000.“We started Kobie Marketing in 1990 and we collaborated on everything," she said. "As my kids would tell you, we talked business night and day. When he passed away, I took over the business and the company at that point had probably about 35 people. And now we have 250, and we’ll probably have 300 by the end of the year. As we have business in the blood, my son is now running the company."
Because of Hechtkopf’s generous donation, the new building will be named the Jared S. Hechtkopf Community Food Bank.
“We are so excited that one of our angels stepped up when hearing about all of our various hopes and plans. She said that for years she had been looking for a proper way to memorialize Jared and that this was it – this was the perfect way to do that,” said Houghton.
Plans for the new food clinic.
Katie Callihan
St. Pete Clinic plans to spend an additional $450,000 projected for planned renovations, which are expected to planned and built by EMPAD Architecture, Interior Design of Clearwater and Hennessey Construction.
“This building is more than a building. It is a source of nutrition and hope and love for the people of this community,” said Houghton.
When looking at the food bank’s future, Houghton expressed that by the end of a five-year period, she hopes that they will be distributing at least five to six million pounds of food per year to the food insecure neighbors in the south to mid-Pinellas community.
During this period of renovation, food assistance will still be given at the clinic’s main location at 863 3rd Ave. N. St. Petersburg.
For more information, please visit StPetersburgFreeClinic.org.
Katie Callihan
This article appears in Jun 2-8, 2016.