Businesses donate food to help feed foster families

BRANDON, Fla. - Foster families are getting a needed helping hand to feed their children thanks to a Bay area organization of volunteers.

Feeding a family during the coronavirus pandemic can be a tough proposition, especially for foster families.

"Right now during the quarantine getting a meal on the table is challenging enough for our families," said West Florida Foster Care Services' Janet Rinaldi. "Who have taken in extra children and having more mouths to feed, it's even more challenging."

That's why West Florida Foster Care Services started a social media campaign to help feed foster families.

"We partnered with businesses to offer us meals, usually at a discounted price, that we can then turn around and deliver to our foster families," Rinaldi said.

They call their effort the Feed a Foster Family Campaign.

"We're trying to show them that we are all in this together. We appreciate what they are doing to serve the most vulnerable children in our area," Rinaldi.

Theresa Sharkey owns Your Pie in Brandon. She is honored to be a part of the caring initiative.

"We were approached to do this. We absolutely wanted to jump on board. Because it is near and dear to our heart and we said 'why not?'"  

The program was started six weeks ago and has delivered more than 110 meals.

"We are going to show up and help any way that we can to make the hard work that they are doing a little bit easier," Rinaldi explained.

For information on how you can help, visit http://www.wffcs.org/feedafamily or http://www.facebook.com/WFFCS.