TAMPA, Fla — Feeding Tampa Bay is operating five mega pantries throughout Tampa Bay.
Since the pandemic, its network of families in need of food has grown from 650,000 to a whopping 1.7 million.
Feeding Tampa Bay worked with Team Rubicon and the National Guard to supply resources as the need increased. As of late, both Team Rubicon and the National Guard have had to move on to different projects, causing Feeding Tampa Bay to handle the increasing workload and demand.
"We have five mega pantries that are requiring us to pack 10,000 boxes in our warehouse just for that county alone along with 150 other smaller mobile pantries needing food each month,” said Kelley Sims, Chief Development Officer with Feeding Tampa Bay.
Feeding Tampa Bay also has a “shelf-stable box” that is hand packaged and served to thousands of families weekly.
"The shelf-stable box is packaged by hand where it's filled with canned goods, sauces, items for your pantry. The items can make meals for a family, we check all of the labels for shelf life." Sims said.
Before the pandemic, Feeding Tampa Bay would bring on around 40,000 volunteers on average but with the growing demand, they need double the hands.
The plan is to place volunteers at the mobile and mega pantries, where they just added a sixth mega pantry on Wednesdays at USF.
"It was around the 10th of March that we noticed the first uptick of people who needed our help. If you remember that week or so was the first week of furloughed or laid-off workers.” Sims said. "You can imagine how important volunteers are for us, especially right now, honestly there’s no way we could hire enough people to help us triple our work. We are so grateful for every volunteer."
If you or someone you know is interested in volunteering with Feeding Tampa Bay, sign up through their website here.
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