Organizations across Tampa Bay pitch in for Thanksgiving food donations

TAMPA, Fla. - Several different Tampa Bay area organizations are coming together to make sure no one goes hungry and everyone has a Thanksgiving meal this holiday season.

Donated food is rolling into place ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday next week. Metropolitan Ministries in Tampa said registered slots filled up faster than ever before.

READ: Tampa International Airport preparing for possibly busiest Thanksgiving travel on record

"It’s about 30,000 families, and for Thanksgiving, it’s about 15,000 and the other half is for Christmas," said Justine Burke, the vice president of marketing at Metropolitan Ministries. "Those slots for Thanksgiving were already filled a week ago."

Barrels of canned food plus stacks of vegetables and more fill their holiday tent to help families across Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties check off the trimmings. 

"If they can’t pay their rent or their electrical bill," Burke asked, "how are they going to go out and splurge on a Thanksgiving meal?" 

On Wednesday, Feeding Tampa Bay placed the basics in trunks to help fill that gap.

"The USDA just put out a report that food insecurity is on the rise here in Tampa Bay. We’ve known that," said Shannon Hannon-Oliviero, a spokesperson at Feeding Tampa Bay. "At Feeding Tampa Bay, we have seen an increase, a steady increase from anyone from individuals, families, even dual-income families that are trying to make ends meet due to inflation."

They shared what else people could donate.

READ: Three million Floridians expected to travel for Thanksgiving: AAA

"What we often want to focus on is cultural foods, right? So, what we encourage folks to do is if you’re going to donate food, give something that you love," said Hannon-Oliviero.

Cereal, candied yams, turkeys and hams are on the list for local food banks. But it’s not just families struggling more this year.

"As far as seniors go this year in particular, we’ve been seeing a 15 percent increase in just seniors on fixed income," Burke said. "So, you know, they’re retired, social security, or disability, and their rents have gone up, and their grocery bills have gone up."

During the holidays, Mary Jo McKay with Hillsborough County Aging Services said a meal can do more than fill a belly.

"You can get sad during the holidays because you start thinking about who's not here any longer, maybe the family members you've lost or that you don't have your family around you," said Mary Jo McKay, a nutrition and wellness manager at Hillsborough County Aging Services. "But it's something nostalgic and something heartwarming about that meal."

McKay said they served about 800,000 before the pandemic, then it went up to a million during COVID-19.

"Now, we're probably going to end the year at about a million, so we're still high there. We're still serving more meals than we did pre-COVID," said McKay.

Metro Ministries and Feeding Tampa Bay are taking donations to help families. You can find out more information about Metropolitan Ministries here and Feeding Tampa Bay here.