Scout's honor: Panama City Girl Scout makes standalone food pantry for homeless downtown

PANAMA CITY — Food insecurity is something that always struck a chord with local teenager Caitlin Holmes. 

The 18-year-old Girl Scout Ambassador said her family has always tried to give back to the community and give meals to those in need. So, when it came time for Holmes to do her senior project for Girl Scouts, she instantly knew what she wanted to do. 

Holmes built a small, accessible food pantry filled with nonperishable food items and toiletries to help the homeless and food insecure in downtown Panama City. 

Similar to tiny libraries stands, the pantry is located at the corner of Beach Drive and Luverne Avenue by the Panama City Marine Institute. It will be open 24 hours a day for anyone to take from it or donate. 

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“I knew I wanted to do something in my community,” Holmes said. “I was doing research and things like problems we have and food insecurity came up a lot. Especially after Hurricane Michael with all the damage and people were homeless and all of our shelters were closed down.” 

In 2018, Hurricane Michael left roughly 22,000 of Bay County's then-180,000 residents homeless, according to the Associated Press. Holmes said she remembers seeing the effects of Michael and how it changed her community, so she put a lot of work into volunteering. 

In total, the work toward the food pantry took more than 80 hours and was comprised of almost 100% scrapped materials, keeping costs to a minimum.  

This entire project will be submitted for a Girl Scout Gold Award, which is considered the most prestigious award that Girl Scout seniors and ambassadors can earn. According to the official Girl Scouts website, only 5.4% of eligible Girl Scouts successfully earn the Gold Award after fulfilling the requirements. 

“It doesn’t happen very often,” Holmes said. “They don’t go through Girl Scouts all of high school and if they do, they don’t stick with the Gold Award because it is a lot of work.” 

The next part of the project is documenting how often they must restock it, and then she will send a final report for the project to get a Gold Award. If chosen, she will then be honored with the award at a banquet in May in Jacksonville. 

Holmes, who has been a Girl Scout for the past 12 years, said she has always kept up with it and enjoys the work she gets out of it.  

“It’s something I could do on the weekends,” Holmes said. “It wasn’t school and it was helping my community. I get to go out and do things and it’s fun.” 

Now that her project is complete, Holmes said she invites all community members to donate whatever they can, if it’s nonperishable. The food pantry will be there for the foreseeable future, she said.  

Holmes said her goal for the pantry is just that people donate and those who need it will be helped by the free items. 

“I’m excited, I'm hoping it stays there,” Holmes said. “I’d possibly make more cabinets to put around other places around the town in the future.”