“Amazing” Employees at TGH
Approximately 1,200 pounds of food – enough to feed about 400 families – filled a room at Tampa General Hospital last month. The sight was overwhelming to the two Metropolitan Ministries representatives who were there to receive the bounty.
“Your generosity is amazing,” said Angie Pattison, coordinator of community donations for Metropolitan Ministries.
The hundreds of pounds of canned food, pasta, rice, cereal, and other items were donated by TGH employees. Over the past two months, the food was dropped into barrels located around the hospital. Beside the food, people donated about $300 in cash and supermarket gift certificates.
The food drive was a project of the TGH Cultural Diversity Committee, which saw the need after a moving presentation by Metropolitan Ministries during an internal cultural diversity program in September.
“Afterwards, we got tons of telephone calls from people asking what more we could do,” said TGH Recruiter Cora Edwards, who co-chairs the Cultural Diversity Committee with Pastoral Care Director Rev. Bill Baugh and Acute Care Nurse Manager Julie Dudash.
The need for food donations is large and growing bigger as the economy continues to decline, said Angelo Flukes, director of food services and environment services for Metropolitan Ministries.
Over 15,000 families have registered for assistance with Metropolitan Ministries, which provides food, shelter, job training, and other assistance for poor and homeless people in the Tampa Bay region. Just in October, 5,000 more families signed up, Mr. Flukes said.
“We used to see 67 families a day. Now we see about 105 a day,” he said. “People are trying to make it from Friday to Friday. They’re having to choose between buying gas for their cars or food.”
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