St. Augustine Society Is Florida's Only Finalist for $200,000 Chick-fil-A Grant, and Voting Ends Sept. 30

A St. Johns County nonprofit that has fed and sheltered people in crisis since 1984 is one vote away from a $200,000 grant, and the clock is running out. The St. Augustine Society has been named the only Florida-based finalist for a 2027 Chick-fil-A True Inspiration Regional Award. Public voting opened Sept. 1 and closes Sept. 30, with each person allowed one vote through the Chick-fil-A app.

The finalist spot already guarantees the organization $35,000. Winning the regional award would bring an additional $200,000, money the nonprofit says would go toward food purchases, kitchen operations and meal distribution at a time when demand keeps climbing.

Who nominated them

The nomination came from Wayne Efford, owner and operator of St. Augustine's two Chick-fil-A locations, who has worked with the Society since 2017. Efford's stores have donated more than 100,000 pounds of food to the organization over the years, and he has encouraged his own employees to volunteer serving meals at the group's Chef's Night Out events at the St. Francis House. He has described the partnership as a way of giving back to a county that has supported his restaurants, and said something as small as one meal can be the start of a conversation that helps someone through a hard stretch.

What the numbers show

The St. Augustine Society runs three connected programs: the St. Francis Housing Crisis Center, which provides emergency shelter, daily meals and housing services; the Port in the Storm Homeless Youth Center, for unaccompanied youth; and SOS Street Outreach, which brings meals directly to people living unsheltered.

The organization serves an average of about 1,000 people a year. In the first half of 2026, 48% of participants at the St. Francis Housing Crisis Center and 50% of those at Port in the Storm moved on to stable housing. Those exit rates are the kind of outcome the group's director of development, Joy Case, points to when she talks about food as more than a meal. She has described it as the first point of connection for someone in crisis, the moment where trust starts to build and a path toward shelter and long-term stability can open up.

Why demand is rising

Part of the pressure on the Society's kitchen comes from a program that did not exist a year ago. The nonprofit added the Goff Family Shelter in 2025 to provide temporary housing for parents with minor children, and staff expect that added capacity to keep demand high through 2027. A $200,000 grant would go directly toward keeping food flowing to all three programs, from grocery purchases to the daily work of running the kitchen.

Chick-fil-A has not said when it will announce the regional award winner, and the St. Augustine Society has not said whether it plans additional local voting pushes before the Sept. 30 deadline. For now, the ask is simple: open the app, find the vote, and use it once before the month runs out.

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