BRADENTON, Fla. — Feeding Tampa Bay handed out close to 3,000 meals at Desoto Square Mall in Bradenton Friday. It was one of four emergency distribution centers throughout the county.
“Power lines in my backyard, touching so my daughter can't go outside, all my food went bad, we don’t have a generator, so this is going to help us out right now,” said Allison Rhodes.
Many of the residents waiting in line in Bradenton still have no idea when their power will be restored, meaning no refrigerators or microwaves. So Feeding Tampa Bay was giving them MREs, which means "Meal, Ready to Eat."
“Two strangers posted on Facebook that they have children, no power, no food, and could somebody help them, and I read about this and I said, 'I would be glad to,'" said Anna Curley.
Once Feeding Tampa Bay takes care of people in their own community they will then move people and resources down south to help their sister organizations.
“When you lose power, you lose everything, it doesn’t matter what kind of food, you lose it all,” said Robert Hill.
Feeding Tampa Bay will do it all over again Saturday, with five more emergency distribution centers set up across Tampa Bay. For more information, click here.