Titus O’Neil, Metropolitan Ministries hand out hundreds of Thanksgiving box meals
TAMPA, Fla. - WWE star Thaddeus "Titus O’Neil" Bullard and his non-profit, The Bullard Foundation, teamed up with Metropolitan Ministries to give out boxes of food ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday at Sligh Middle School.
The 33610 area code, which includes the Sligh neighborhood, has the sixth-highest percentage of children living in poverty in the state of Florida, according to the Bullard Family Foundation.
Volunteers passed out 500 meal boxes on Saturday, with a goal to give out 2,500 boxes throughout the holiday season.
READ: WWE star Titus O’Neil helps 30,000 kids get ready to go back to school
"Just trying to continue to help as many as we can," said Titus O’Neil. "Obviously, we can’t do it without generous supporters and great volunteers that are having a really good time here."
Volunteers passed out 500 meal boxes on Saturday, with a goal to give out 2,500 boxes throughout the holiday season.
Metropolitan Ministries says it is gearing up to serve more than 37,000 families this holiday season, up from 35,000 last year.
"We’re trying to do everything that we can, the community is banding together like never before, a tropical storm, a hurricane, and everything else in between, and that’s coming off the heels of a pandemic where so many people that were already in a dire situation kept digging themselves in a hole with rent rising and everything else, just the cost of living," O’Neil said.
Food costs are up across the board, which is why Metropolitan Ministries says the need for donations is dire.
Metropolitan Ministries says it is gearing up to serve more than 37,000 families this holiday season, up from 35,000 last year.
"Turkeys have almost tripled the price they were before, so we know firsthand, even though we’re buying a bunch in bulk and can drive down the cost a little bit for a family that’s trying to figure out a way to put something on the table, it can be very, very hard for them to do it with these inflation increases," said O’Neil. "Just be good human beings, there’s no red, there’s no blue, it doesn’t matter what religious beliefs you have or sexual orientation, it’s really about being good human beings."
For more information and to help visit https://www.metromin.org/ or https://bullardfamilyfoundation.org/.