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Churches Work To Keep Hunger At Bay

Tribune photo by LOIS KINDLE

Under the watchful eye of his dad, Jeff Jones, Alden, 3, accepts a bag of food from a volunteer. Beside him on the truck are his sister, Zyria, 5, and Stone Stamper, 7.

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By YVETTE C. HAMMETT

yhammett@tampatrib.com

Published: December 3, 2008

APOLLO BEACH - With so many in need of so much, a Christian initiative to fill food bank shelves could not have been timelier.

"It's a tremendous blessing for us to see the body of Christ come together like this," said Bill Cruz, interim director of Good Samaritan Mission in Wimauma.

Feed the Bay, an effort undertaken by some 15,000 people from 21 churches in eastern and southern Hillsborough County on Nov. 23, provided the mission with a tractor-trailer full of food from Sweetbay and a U-Haul from Publix.

That much food likely will carry the mission through the holidays, Cruz said.

Started by BayLife Church in Brandon, this is the third year for the effort. Churches released members early and dispatched them to area supermarkets, where they filled baskets using their own money to fill food pantry shelves.

"This truly is about being the church versus going to church and being an instrument to be used by God to take on our hunger issue in Tampa," says Feed the Bay's Web site.

And it truly was, said Debbie Weisemann of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, who helped coordinate the event.

"It was a great, great day," Weisemann said. More than 750 volunteers participated.

"God shows his greatness through us," the Rev. John Guerre told his congregation at Big Bend United Methodist Church before sending them out to shop.

Using preprinted shopping lists, people shopped at seven Sweetbay and eight Publix stores, all of which provided trucks in the parking lots so food could be hauled directly to food banks.

"We are blessed, and God blesses us to bless others," Guerre said.

"When the economy is down, their needs go up," he said of the food banks. "This will help offset some of those needs."

Teams organized into human conveyor belts to move boxes of food into the pantries once the trucks arrived, Weisemann said.

"They took it upon themselves to fill in the gaps," Cruz said.

In South Shore, the effort by members of Big Bend United Methodist Church went directly to the Good Samaritan Mission.

The Beth-El Farm Worker Ministry in Wimauma also received 12,000 pounds of food from the one-day drive, enough to sustain 1,700 clients through the first of the year.

"On Sunday, a group of 21 volunteers gathered to help with the unloading of the food," said Javier Izaguirre, operations manager for the ministry. "Eleven of them were volunteers who signed up on the Feed the Bay online Web link; the others were Beth-El mission volunteers.

"This group did a wonderful job of unloading approximately 12,000 pounds of assorted food in a period of three hours," Izaguirre said. "This is the most food ever received by Beth-El in such a short period of time. The food will carry us over the holidays without a doubt."

Daystar Faith Center in Gibsonton, which has little room for storage, will receive cash and gift cards to purchase items as needed, Weisemann said.

And the shoppers were all too happy to help.

"We think it's important our children understand what it means to help people who can't help themselves," said Craig Aagaard, shopping with his family at the Sweetbay at U.S. 301 and Big Bend Road.

"It's what Jesus called us to do," added Rebecca Bryant, who was shopping with her husband, Dennis, at the same store.

Coordinators estimated that participants collected some 270,000 pounds of food - 20,000 pounds more than the program's goal.

Food and gift cards are still being accepted for Feed the Bay at participating churches.

With the success of this year's effort, Weisemann said Feed the Bay may be expanded statewide.

"There's been a lot of buzz out there about what we're doing, so our plan is to orchestrate a statewide drive, possibly the last week of September."

To view more photos, go to SouthShore.TBO .com and search for "Feed the Bay Photos." Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 865-1566.

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