HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Christmas trees, food and toys for shopping, and a section where kids can play. It’s Christmas, the Metropolitan Ministries way before Covid-19.
“The last two years, because of covid, we had to reinvent our distribution model,” Justine Burke said. “We did a drive-up, which is so much less personal.”
Burke is the Vice President of marketing for Metropolitan Ministries. She said having the clients come in to talk to staff and volunteers, get a snack, then go shopping is their true mission, “which is promoting dignity.”
“They get to shop for what they know their family would want,” she said.
While parents shopped for food and toys, their kids got to play in the kid section, not knowing the cool Christmas gifts mom and dad were picking out.
“The kids can still be surprised on Christmas Day,” Burke said. “They have something to walk up to.”
And, On the other side of the tent, people were dropping off boxes and bags of donations.
“We saw it on the news and went out to get what we could,” time Clark said. “We are so blessed, some folks aren’t, and we just want to make sure other families will have a good Christmas morning too.”
A lot of new donations came in Sunday, but they still need lots more. Burke said “between Thanksgiving and Christmas,” they are helping 37,000 families this year; they need more Yams, Turkey and Ham. She said they also need more toys for teens and volunteers.
“Every year, we rely on the community’s support. We couldn’t do it without the community..”
If you would like to donate, you can bring your donations down to the Holiday Tent on North Rome Ave.
