Feeding Tampa Bay working overtime to help residents recovering from hurricanes ahead of Thanksgiving

TAMPA, Fla. - Organizations around the Tampa Bay area have been working overtime to help people recover and rebuild from the hurricanes.

Feeding Tampa Bay said it’s given out 19 million additional meals in about the last two months, in hurricane recovery food assistance alone. The organization said the number of meals it’s distributed in the last two months is up about 50% from usual.

"We have so many neighbors who are struggling, trying to recover," Shannon Hannon-Oliviero with Feeding Tampa Bay said. "We have neighbors who are struggling from the impact of inflation."

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Feeding Tampa Bay partnered with Winn-Dixie to distribute groceries to about 1,000 people and families at its Causeway Center in Tampa Monday afternoon.

"We’re definitely seeing the increased volume, and we know that that will last for months to come," Feeding Tampa Bay’s COO Rhonda Gindlesperger said.

From the cost of groceries, to housing, to hurricane recovery and rebuilding now, Feeding Tampa Bay said it’s seeing even more people in the community in need of help this holiday season.

"Their budgets have been strapped with building repairs for their homes, replenishing the groceries that went out when we were without power, so this is really important, in particular this holiday season," Gindlesperger said.

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Volunteers also distributed 400 pre-prepared Thanksgiving meals to seniors on Monday.

Gindlesperger said they expect the need to continue to grow in the coming months as the community continues to recover from Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

"Increased expenses because of damages or being without work for a period of time, because maybe the business closed because of hurricane impact," she said. 

She said food distribution sites are making a difference in being able to put Thanksgiving dinner on the table for a lot of families.

"Making sure that people can have that normalcy in their day after the last few months, in particular, is really important," Gindlesperger said.

Feeding Tampa Bay said its three restaurants at the Causeway Center will be open for hot meals from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. You can find information about food distribution sites and other resources through Feeding Tampa Bay here.

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