Local food banks ask for non-perishable donations as needs rise and availability dwindles

TAMPA, Fla. — With so many people out of work, the need at local food banks is critical. They're here to help people who need it, but now they need some help, too.

They say they're seeing a lot of new faces as more and more people are out of work. Multiple food drives are happening today, and Metropolitan Ministries says specifically they need canned goods.

They're collecting canned food at their two locations:

• Tampa Campus: 2101 N. Florida Ave.
•  Pasco Campus:  3214 US HWY 19 N, Holiday, FL 34691 

At the Tampa location, they're collecting that food from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday and Monday through Friday at their Pasco location.

Justine Burke works at Metropolitan Ministries and says they're running low on non-perishable food items specifically because people were "panic buying" it at the beginning of the epidemic. Non-perishable food is better for them to have simply because the shelf life is longer. This coupled with that greater need since the pandemic started means they're running out.

"Because, you know, we were emptying out our warehouses of everything we had in there, we're handling seven times more families than we'd typically handle, this is something like we've never seen, in order to keep doing that we need those donations," Burke said.

There are other food drives going on today as well from other organizations. In Pasco County, county leaders said they were accepting non-perishable good at SR 54 and the Veterans Expressway, from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m.

For more information about how to donate to Metropolitan Ministries or how to get help if you need it, go here: 

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