WEAC Pensacola

In 1983 after retiring from a long career with Gulf Power, WWII Navy veteran Kenneth Warren Wright Sr. and his wife, Mary Ellen Tucker Wright, opened a small center to distribute food and clothing to needy neighbors of the Warrington community.

They set up Warrington Emergency Aid Center as a nonprofit operating out of the second floor of the Warrington Pharmacy on Barrancas Ave. His eldest son, Michael Wright, remembers his father making weekly trips to the Delchamps grocery store for donations of “day-old” bread to hand out to center customers.

A deacon at Warrington Baptist Church, Wright created a network of supporting churches whose congregations generously supplied WEAC with food and clothes for those in need. Upon his death in 1995, Wright’s son, Kenneth Wright Jr., took over management of WEAC, which had moved to a building at 10 W. Sunset Ave. on property owned by St. John the Evangelist Church. At the time of the death of Wright Jr. in 2017, WEAC was operating out of a second building owned by St. John the Evangelist at 4 W. Sunset Ave.

Since 2023, WEAC has been located in the annex of Warrington Presbyterian Church at 406 S. Navy Blvd.

Today, WEAC continues its outreach to the food-insecure in the Warrington community, while also supporting numerous other organizations whose aim is to provide assistance to the vulnerable and needy in the Warrington community.  In 2025, WEAC forecasts food distribution will top 800 households. As one of the oldest food banks in Pensacola, WEAC continues to operate with a core staff of volunteers and the generous support of its seven member churches.