ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — 10 Tampa Bay, along with hundreds of other agencies and businesses, have been collecting boxes of cereal for our Cereal for Summer initiative. And, we've seen a good turnout.
Friday marked the last day to help feed hungry kids over the summer. 10 Tampa Bay and Feeding Tampa Bay held an all-day event from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. to receive donations.
It happened at the Britton Plaza Publix at 3838 Britton Plaza in Tampa, off of S. Dale Mabry.
It's estimated that 1 in 4 children in our area are "food insecure." This means they're not certain when or where their next meal is coming from, Feeding Tampa Bay says. The problem of child hunger increases in the summer months when many students are not receiving meals at school. We're here to help alleviate that problem.
But what about milk? Don't worry. The Florida Dairy Farmers provided a refrigerated truck for milk donations at the Tampa/Britton Plaza Publix.
\Last year, 10 Tampa Bay collected enough cash and cereal to provide more than 2 million meals. This year, we want to break that record. Those who donated cereal boxes through Friday helped children in need to nutritious morning meals.
This year, more than 25,000 boxes of cereal were donated Friday alone. That's 250,000 meals provided in a single day! There was much more donated before that. We're still waiting on the grand totals. But, we know we're still trying to break that 2 million meal record from last year.
If you were unable to donate by Friday but still want help out, you can drop off cereal boxes at the Feeding Tampa Bay warehouse during the month of May. It's located at 4702 Transport Drive in Tampa.
You can also donate online here.
So what kind of cereal was donated?
Think nutritious cereals: Cheerios, Chex or Wheaties, but all cereals were welcomed. We also accepted cereal/breakfast bars, granola and oatmeal.
Many organizations have joined in the fight to help hungry children and collect cereal boxes, including Patel Conservatory dance, the Polk County Sheriff's Office, the Clearwater Police Department, The Wingmen group from Palm Harbor United Methodist Church, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and more.