I was recently honored and humbled to be elected to the board of directors of Feeding Tampa Bay, an organization that I’ve had tremendous respect for since moving to the region.
Thomas Mantz, president and CEO of Feeding Tampa Bay, and his team have done an amazing job of reshaping and redefining the organization. Their mission-focused effort is not to just tackle food insecurity across the region, state and nation — but also to build people-focused solutions to dismantle barriers and disrupt systems of old, bringing a new holistic approach to solving the challenges around food insecurity.
More than 2.9 million Floridians (13.2%) live in food-insecure households, but food alone will not solve hunger. Solutions require understanding the larger issues, situations and circumstances that can lead to food insecurity — and creating pathways, resources, opportunities and partnerships to help alleviate those hardships. Tackling hunger also requires us to act with dignity, respect, humbleness and honesty — with the acknowledgment that not just one path leads individuals to hunger.
After many years of focused strategic planning, rethinking and reshaping how to serve, along with amazing fundraising efforts and philanthropic giving, Feeding Tampa Bay recently moved into its new Causeway Center headquarters. The state-of-the-art facility spans over 215,000 square feet. So much more than just a food depository, the Causeway Center was created to become a one-stop shop for service access, community connection and collaboration.
The Causeway Center offers hot meals, a grocery store, a support center helping to navigate available benefits, health care services, a computer lab and a learning center. The center also has an 11,000-sq.-ft. industrial kitchen, providing the ability to create prepared meals and accept prepared foods. The kitchen, designed to leverage the skills of Feeding Tampa Bay’s culinary team, includes space for continued educational programming and the opportunity to expand services and offerings to new areas.
The headquarters also offers a fully equipped and versatile space for community events, collaboration among partners, team-building exercises and activities, business meetings and elegant galas.
Its new location offers tremendously more space, including dedicated docks that can accommodate vehicles of all sizes. The logistics center, meanwhile, increases the organization’s capacity to accept, store and process four times more partner-donated frozen, fresh and shelf-stable foods. The center’s improved and expanded storage capabilities allow Feeding Tampa Bay — one of nine Feeding America food banks around the state — to offer more fresh, nutritious options to its consumers.
I am excited to begin contributing to the board’s work, volunteering with my family and FLORIDA TREND on a regular basis, and introducing more people to the amazing service Feeding Tampa Bay provides.
Food insecurity is prevalent across so many communities — noticeable or not — and it does not discriminate. I hope you too will look to your local food pantries and see how you can assist in the solution.
— David G. Denor, Publisher ddenor@floridatrend.com