Full Tummy Project gets new building for operation

Published 10:07 pm Thursday, December 3, 2020

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After six years of calling the First United Methodist Church home, the Full Tummy Project now has a place of its own.

The non-profit, whose goal is to make sure every child in the county is fed, will now be located at the old Corner Market, beside Fletcher’s Outdoors.

“We have wanted to move for a while,” Full Tummy Founder Katie King said. “I guess I just saw the listing on Facebook. So, I went and talked to Anthony King, the owner of Fletcher’s, and he was very excited to have us. Interestingly enough, we were approached by someone who offered to pay the rent for us for our first year. We knew that it was just a God thing.”

King said the past six years at FUMC has been wonderful.

“We have been so grateful for the Methodist Church,” King said. “Just for their support of the project. I mean, to have rent-free space for six years has been phenomenal.”

All of the food items that the non-profit donates are non-perishable, which means, the new building is already perfect for the group.

“We will have plenty of storage and we will do our pack nights from that space,” King said. “All of our deliveries and drop-offs will be from that location, as well, because there is a ramp in the front. It also has a permanent recyclables trailer so we can take all of our recyclables out there. There are also security cameras already installed. So, every little detail is covered. Anthony has also always been really supportive of us and has been a really easy guy to work with.”

King expects the group to be moved in by the start of the year, so there won’t be a gap in service.

“We will be building shelves this month, so we don’t plan to have a gap in service,” King said. “So, when the kids go back to school in January, we hoped to be completely stocked up and ready to go.”