Metropolitan Ministries’ Holiday Tent assistance program is a tradition in the Tampa Bay community. The local nonprofit expects to serve thousands of families in need this Thanksgiving and Christmas.
“The holiday assistance program began in 1982,” said Metropolitan Ministries’ senior director of marketing and communications, Jason Bartos. “It started by serving 24 families out of a single room of the Gap House, our original building. As the needs of the community increased, the single room was no longer large enough, so Morris Hinzman, Metro’s first CEO, said, ‘Let’s throw up a tent.’ The first tent was on the Tampa campus. Since then, the program has continued to grow to include tents and pop-up locations in three counties.”
Metropolitan Ministries will serve more than 30,000 families this holiday season across the four tents, through a number of pop-up locations and with its community partnerships in Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.
“This year, we are offering both fully online and in-person registration,” Bartos said. “While on our website, your family will have the option to sign up for convenient locations to receive hope. To mitigate additional travel, we are partnering with strategic, like-minded organizations to offer more sites across Tampa Bay.”
Longevity is something Metropolitan Ministries is proud of when it comes to helping those in need during the holiday season.
“I know that Metropolitan Ministries is only able to make a real difference because of the compassion and generosity of our neighbors,” Bartos said. “For 43 years, we’ve worked together to give people hope during the holiday season, and with the continued partnership of our volunteers and donors, we’ll keep expanding our services to ensure no one faces hunger or hardship alone.”
There are a number of ways people can help. First is to host a food or toy drive. In order to serve those 30,000 families in need, Metropolitan Ministries will need to fill the tents and shelves.
“It takes 1,000 drives and a million pounds of food,” Bartos said. “Our tents open for donations on November 10, so organizing a drive for your neighborhood, school, church or workplace is great way to help us fill the tent. We also have ways on our website to host a virtual drive or shop online for food donations from our holiday store. Another way to help is to make a monetary donation. Right now, donations are being matched by an anonymous donor, so your gift will help twice as many local families. You can also donate your time. It takes 20,000 volunteers each year to make the Holiday Tents happen.”
Rising living costs in Tampa Bay, combined with ongoing economic challenges from the pandemic, hurricanes and government shutdown, have led to record demand for aid at Metropolitan Ministries.
If you would like to learn more about Metropolitan Ministries’ Holiday Tent program, you can visit its website at www.metromin.org/holiday-central. Metropolitan Ministries is located at 2002 N. Florida Ave. in Tampa.
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