HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — It really is a beautiful sight.
Wednesday afternoon, despite repressively hot weather, a group of volunteers banded together to make a difference in countless lives.
One by one, as families pulled up to a Hillsborough County food pantry, the volunteers loaded the trunks of their cars with big blessings: boxes filled to the brim with fresh groceries.
They’re groceries people like Joy Barbee and her daughter might not have otherwise.
"This is a big help for us because, you know, it's free,” Barbee said. “All you have to do is just come and get it."
Wednesday’s food distribution was the work of the Three B’s Ministry and Martha Diaz.
Diaz is an infectiously-bighearted force of good who's made it her life mission to help others.
Her altruistic spirit was forged by the trials and tribulations of her past. She moved from Puerto Rico to Florida with her five year old daughter in 2010, and despite her advanced degrees, experienced homelessness.
“I was very nervous. I was very scared,” she told ABC Action News in a previous interview. “I have a friend in Puerto Rico. She is my best friend, and I was calling her crying all the time, and she said, ‘Why don’t you come back? You know, come back. I’m here for you.’ And I said, ‘No, I don’t want to go back. I need to be here. Something is telling me that there’s a purpose for me in this place.’”
When her life finally stabilized, she became the help she wished she had during her period of homelessness.
What started as a meal train for a sick friend during the COVID-19 pandemic eventually became her nonprofit, the Three B’s Ministry.
“I need to say thank you to God first, but then, all the people that was involved to make this happen,” she said Wednesday.
But back in April, Diaz cried tears of worry.
Her food pantry lost its home at a Valrico church and had until June 1 to find a new home. Diaz worried she would have to suspend the nonprofit's operations.
Then, multiple ABC Action News viewers got involved. One informed the news department of the dire situation. After the station ran a story about the ministry’s pressing need for a new location, another viewer — Chirag Amin — helped provide a new home for Three B’s Ministry on Lithia Pinecrest Road near Brandon.
The new location hosted its inaugural food distribution Wednesday, and though the nonprofit is still figuring out logistics at its new home, the food giveaway went smoothly.
“It feels like it’s real — like it’s happening,” Diaz said. “And I’m very appreciative of everybody that made this happen.”
The story doesn’t end there, however.
Now, there’s now a new opportunity for ABC Action News viewers to help the food pantry, which feeds at least 150 families each week.
Diaz says the pantry needs a refrigerator truck to serve more people more types of food. ABC Action News Gives hopes to help Three B’s Ministry purchase such a truck.
