SAINT PETERSBURG, Fla. — With the launch of a new Pinellas County empowerment center, Feeding Tampa Bay is working to make sure no one who is hungry is turned away from a meal or food to take home.
The organization announced this week the new empowerment center off 54th Ave. N. in St. Pete will include a Trinity Café and a food pantry for those in need to stock up on goods.
"If the pandemic did anything for us, it showed us how close hunger was to everyone, right," said Matt Spence of Feeding Tampa Bay. "We'll have a Trinity cafe here that serves a hot meal for free to anyone who comes through our doors every weekday evening from 5:30 p.m. to 630 p.m. We've also got a wrap-around, all sorts of other supportive services including a pantry that's open Tuesday and Thursday afternoon."
Feeding Tampa Bay says one out of every six children, and one out of every four children, in our community don't have enough food to eat. The Pinellas County empowerment center will help meet the need.
"These services have definitely been more needed than we've ever had during the pandemic, I mean somebody people were out of work for a long time,” said Mayor Rick Kriseman. “You saw people that you would never have expected to see because of the conditions they found themselves in."
Those with Feeding Tampa Bay say the new empowerment center with cafe and pantry isn't just about a handout, but also about equipping people with skills to provide for themselves.
"Food for a lifetime,” said Spence. “How do we help you change your financial circumstances so that you're no longer in need of food assistance? We do that by helping people access benefits through our workforce development, job training programs."
Both the Trinity Cafe and the Feeding Tampa Bay food pantry will open next week.
"To know there's an organization that's committed to making sure that you get taken care of and you get treated with dignity and respect and lifted up, is critical in our community,” said St. Petersburg Mayor Kriseman.
