Cafe offers hope, closes gap for area hungry

SEFFNER

Forty people came to Monday's opening of a new feeding spot for the poor. The response showed organizers from area churches that their hunches were on target: There are a lot of hungry people in the Seffner-Mango area.

The I Am Hope Cafe at First Baptist Church of Mango, 11619 E Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., served its first dinner at 5:30 p.m. Volunteers remodeled unused space at the church to create the dining room, relying heavily on donated materials and labor. It will serve a meal from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays; and from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Saturdays.

The cafe complements Wednesday and Thursday feedings less than a mile away at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, plugging a service gap with food supplied by Metropolitan Ministries.

"Originally it was for the homeless," said Connie Farrington of Bay Life Church, one of several organizations responsible for the I Am Hope Cafe. "But we got about halfway through and realized it's for the hungry. Everybody needs to eat. You can't do anything if you're hungry."

Volunteers served black beans with beef and mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, fruit gelatin and bread, with a chocolate cake or pastry dessert.

The meal went down just fine with James Armstrong, who has lived in a tent for three months since being laid off from his job as a cook. Armstrong, 44, said he worked at major chains including the Olive Garden and Beef 'O'Brady's.

"The last two hired were the first two fired," he said of his former job at Beef 'O'Brady's.

He couldn't pay the weekly rent for an efficiency he shared with Frances Reed, 43. The couple staked out a secluded spot to pitch their tent.

A labor pool has not yielded enough money to get a roof over their heads. Work is sporadic. "You sit out there waiting," Armstrong said.

More destitute people are becoming evident in the area in the past two years, said volunteer Faye Corrado, a Seffner native.

"People are coming up to your house, knocking on your door," she said. "They are asking for food, asking for work."

The cafe hopes to add a clothes cabinet for the needy sometime this fall, said Vince Ferraro, a leader in the I Am Hope Cafe effort. To create the cafe, the Emergency Help Care Organization and 20 religious groups in 2007 formed the nonprofit Greater Brandon Ecumenical Ministries. Key players supporting the cafe include Bay Life Church, Concerned Action in Christ, First Presbyterian Church of Brandon, the River of Life United Methodist Cluster, and Congregation Beth Shalom of Brandon.

Although opening day was successful, volunteer Greg Watson predicted more hungry people will arrive soon.

"The word is not out yet," he said.

Andrew Meacham can be reached at 661-2431 or ameacham@sptimes.com.