About Wildwood Food Pantry

Location

Wildwood United Methodist Church
300 Mason Street (Rear)
Wildwood, FL 34785

(352) 661-0837

History

The Wildwood Food pantry is a joint Outreach Ministry between the Wildwood United Methodist Church and New Covenant United Methodist Church in The Villages. There has been a faith based pantry operation in the Wildwood area for more than 25 years. The Wildwood Food Pantry established its current home at the Wildwood United Methodist Church during May, 2005. We are now in our 20th year of service to the residents of Wildwood and many other communities throughout Sumter County.

Food Sources

Regular ongoing food drives are conducted at several local churches. The annual Seeds of Hope Food Drive, held in The Villages area, provides a great deal of donated food and funds. Local clubs and businesses often collect and donate food as part of their charitable outreach. And, individuals make donations at the pantry on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings 8:30 to 11:00.

Additionally, Feeding Tampa Bay delivers some produce and other supplementary food to us on a weekly basis. We are an Agency Partner with Feeding Tampa Bay and an Affiliate of Feeding America. They set the Health and Safety Guidelines that we are contracted to abide by and implement.

We are also grateful to Publix Super Markets Inc. who supports our effort to supply frozen meat to our great number of families in need.

Food Distributed

During 2023 over 515,397 pounds of food was distributed to qualified food insecure families residing in Wildwood, Coleman, Oxford, Royal, Webster, the forest community of Croom-A-Coochee, and other areas in Sumter County. We support the House of Hope, Anna’s House, Refuge at Jumper Creek, Bushnell Salvation Army, along with Kids Central organization in Wildwood. For many years we have frequently shared food donations with the Wildwood Soup Kitchen to help them supply prepared meals for the hungry in the community and surrounding area.

We have been blessed by the generous donations from our surrounding neighbors, organizations, and businesses to share monthly food contributions to the Ocala Food Pantry (SoZo Kids) located in the Ocala National Forrest and weekly food contributions to the pantries at Lake Panasoffkee, Bushnell, Leesburg, and Dade City.