Baldwin County approves donation of land to Prodisee Pantry for Stockton food distribution center

The Baldwin County Commission voted Feb. 19 to donate county-owned property in north Baldwin County to Prodisee Pantry to build a second distribution facility and community resource center in Stockton.

Deann, a Prodisee Pantry board representative, told commissioners the nonprofit has served the Vaughan and Stockton communities for 14 years and cited recent volume: "last year we had 1,500 family visits to our Stockton distributions" and "overall, we had 11,102 family visits across Baldwin County and provided over 1,400,000 pounds of food just last year." She said the Stockton site conducts 12 distributions in the north part of the county that amounted to more than 90 tons of food last year.

Commissioners discussed the proposal briefly and then moved to approve the donation (motion by Commissioner Gruber; second noted in the record). The motion passed by voice vote.

Prodisee said the Stockton facility will also host partner services now offered at its Spanish Fort location — legal, medical and dental services — and will be used to better serve residents in northern Baldwin County and to support disaster response operations.

The county did not specify the exact parcel acreage in the motion discussion; a commissioner said informally the tract under consideration was "like 4 acres," but the formal motion and vote record did not provide a finalized acreage figure.

The commission recorded the approval as a formal action during the Feb. 19 session; staff will follow normal closing procedures to effect the conveyance and any necessary conditions or easements.

The county encouraged Prodisee representatives to remain for follow-up and county staff said they will coordinate next steps.