Nearly 50 City of Pensacola staff members and Mayor Grover Robinson joined volunteers throughout the community to support United Way Day of Caring on Friday, Oct. 4, an annual community service effort coordinated by United Way of West Florida.

City employees worked on a variety of projects Friday at Manna Food Pantries, including preparing food bags for local elementary school students, cleaning and organizing Manna’s warehouse, landscaping, pressure washing and more.

“Manna does a great job, and we’re just grateful for the opportunity to come here and work with them and be a team with them,” Mayor Robinson said.

Several city departments and divisions were represented Friday, including Pensacola Police Department, Pensacola Fire Department, Pensacola Energy, Pensacola International Airport, Port of Pensacola, Financial Services, Housing, Human Resources, City Attorney’s Office, Office of the Mayor, and Sanitation Services & Fleet Management. Mayor Robinson commended city employees for their hard work Friday and said he was excited to participate in Day of Caring with such a dedicated team.

“The City of Pensacola participates every day in service, so to me, this is a natural fit for us – providing services to our citizens and continuing to do it in a different way,” Mayor Robinson said. “We just get to see a different type of service.”

Manna’s Executive Director DeDe Flounlacker said Day of Caring is incredibly helpful for their organization because it allows them to complete projects they wouldn’t be able to do otherwise.

“It’s so important to us to have Day of Caring, because it is a day where there’s a lot of things that happen in a really short period of time,” Flounlacker said.

Manna is a local nonprofit with a mission of providing healthy food options to those in need and engaging the entire community in the fight against hunger. Last year, Manna helped 13,533 people, 67 percent of which were children under the age of 12.

Flounlacker said she estimates that several hundred people will benefit from the City of Pensacola’s volunteer efforts on Day of Caring.

“You may not get to see the impact today, but as I like to say, there are going to be a lot of families who will be sitting at their dining room table or sitting wherever they are – maybe in their car next week or next month – and it’s important for you all to know that you’re going to be sitting there at the table with them,” Flounlacker said.

City of Pensacola Recruiting & Training Manager Amy Workman, who coordinated volunteers for Day of Caring, said this year was the best turnout she’s seen from the city in her five years of participating. In addition to helping the community and supporting a great cause, Workman said she sees Day of Caring as an opportunity to enhance employee relationships.

“I think it’s a great way to build teamwork and come together as a whole,” Workman said. “Because the City of Pensacola as an organization is so spread out, so this lets you get together with people you may not know…and I think this is one of the best environments to get to know people, which then helps you build your working relationships as well.”
 
Since Day of Caring was introduced in 1993, United Way of West Florida has coordinated nearly 27,000 volunteers to successfully complete 2,416 projects across Escambia County.

To learn more about United Way Day of Caring, visit uwwf.org/dayofcaring.

To learn more about Manna Food Pantries, visit mannahelps.org.