Stick A Fork In It

Today's guest, Roger Germann, tells us that every person who visits the Florida Aquarium is helping them to preserve nature and provide a better life to the animals they care for. And they want to pay that support forward to the community as well, through partnerships like the one they've formed with us here at Feeding Tampa Bay. Tune in to learn about Roger's journey from a hardscrabble youth in Chicago, and how reconnecting peopl...

Soldiers often learn to suffer in silence, which is why it's so important that they have advocates like retired Col. DJ Reyes. His work with Veteran Treatment Courts in Florida have helped numerous service members turn their lives around and reconnect with their families and purpose. On today's episode, we learn what it's like to spend 35 years touring the world on active duty, and why so many of our military personnel find themsel...

According to today's guest, Hillsborough County has more teacher vacancies than any other county in the state. And as President of the Hillsborough Classroom Teacher's Association, Rob Kriete knows what he's what he's talking about. That's why he's encouraging everyone to visit voteyesforstudents.org to learn about the referendum that will be on general election ballots this November. This millage referendum (Hillsborough Referendu...

BayCare doesn't just specialize in providing care for your body, they understand the importance of taking care of your mind, as well. Dr. Christina Canody joins us today to talk about dealing with some of the suffering Floridians have experienced after being hit with two consecutive hurricanes, and also to introduce us to the On Our Sleeves initiative. As a Pediatrician, Dr. Canody has seen how many children struggle with mental he...

If we want life to improve for ourselves and our neighbors, we'll need to get involved in the conversations that can change that for us. And one of the many ways that we can do that is through voting. Our own advocacy champion, Lorena Hardwick, joins us again today to explain some easy ways you can learn about and lean into the voting process in the coming months. Don't rely on social media or word of mouth to inform you, because t...

Can you believe there are already over 150 episodes of this show!? Give all we've seen and done in that time, and all the people we've met and talked to, we wanted to mark the occasion by revisiting the goal of the show, and the people working to accomplish it. Shannon Oliviero is the PR Officer of Feeding Tampa Bay, and Ev Malcolm is the Content Manager -- and together they've been telling the stories of our neighbors, partners, a...

Yuengling may have opened its famous Tampa brewery back in 1999, but did you know they are the oldest family owned brewery in the US dating back to 1829? Today, the sixth generation of four sisters are running the operation. Tune in to learn more from Debbie Yuengling as she shares their 'all family' culture and what it's like to grow into such a fun and inventive industry. Don't miss out on the concerts taking place on September 5...

There are currently only two "community" schools in Hillsborough County, so as the Resource Teacher at Brandon High, Lauren Leto had to blaze a few trails to support her students. And one of the first things she found when she began talking to families in the community was that their most basic needs weren't being met. Before the conversation could start about raising the school's grade or overall test scores, students and families...

In Phil Lee's own words, Florida Blue is a "health solutions company" -- not just an insurance provider. On today's episode he explains what it means to focus on preventive healthcare, rather than trying to address issues once they've already started, and how having access to healthy food is such a key component in that endeavor. In the past four years alone, Florida Blue has provided over 180 million meals to residents across the ...

For YEARS our caring friends over at ABC Action News have been helping us raise awareness about the struggles, needs, successes and humanity of our neighbors around Tampa Bay. And on today's episode we have two of the crew's grade-A journalists, Sean Daly and Jillian Ramos, joining us to talk about our upcoming Pack the Pantries campaign, as well as the effect that media has in creating a better community. Tune in for laughs and le...

If you've watched Feeding Tampa Bay's Epic Chef competition in the past, you know just how exciting it is to see the best culinary artists in the region face off head-to-head! This year is no different, except that Rachel Bennett, Executive Chef of The Stovall House, will be joining our CEO Thomas Mantz in hosting the live event. Tune in to today's episode to learn about Chef Bennett's history with the event, her history in the kit...

You may be thinking that with our new community center on Causeway Blvd. Feeding Tampa Bay is all set! But the work is just beginning, friends. Now that we have more capacity to feed our neighbors, we have even more room for help from kind souls like you! Our colleagues Derek Ultican and Jason Prado join us on today's episode to explain how you can help us press on toward ending hunger in Tampa Bay, whether you have time, talent, o...

As our mission has grown, the way it's represented has to grow, too. And we're so thankful to have had the experts at ChappellRoberts by our side for over 10 years, to help with that. We have their Senior Director of Brand Strategy, Katy Parsons, on the show today, to share what it's been like engaging with our community in creative and meaningful ways for so many years. Tune in to see how marketing goes so far beyond just colors a...

Many of us know how scary it is to leave high school and try to find your place in the big, wide world. So the mission of Workforce Development Partners is to connect those graduating students with real people who can offer them real opportunities, and support them in their transition to adulthood. Yvonne Fry joins us on today's episode to talk about where and why this mission began, and how it's grown to support dozens of schools ...

Our annual cereal collection event is here! Every year our partners at 10 Tampa Bay help us collect TONS of cereal so that kids in our community can have breakfast every day, even when they're on summer break from school. Kathryn Bursch has been helping us coordinate this massive effort for a long time, and joins us today to share what she's seen of the community pitching in to help one another. And there's still time for you to ge...

There's no singular path to accomplishing our goals in life, and on today's episode our president & CEO, Thomas Mantz, shares the secret sauce behind his successes at Feeding Tampa Bay. The main ingredient? Help from others who care. Not only does everyone need a hand-up to get where they want to go in life, but we all need to help each other if we hope to live in a community that's both stable and thriving. And with the grand ...

If you've spent enough time around Feeding Tampa Bay then you already know that food IS medicine! And the TampaWell project, created by our partners at Tampa General Hospital, is using that medicine to improve the health of our neighbors through a bright and sunny community garden. On today's episode we talk to Jenise Carr, the Food Pharmacy & Community Garden Manager at TampaWell, and learn all about the ways organic gardening...

Awareness of and involvement with the community around you is the most important part of advocacy work, according to Lorena Hardwick, our own Chief External Affairs Officer. It can be easy to get swept up in the frustrations we face in our lives, without knowing what we can do about them or how we can do it. But that's Lorena's specialty -- she stays on top of the important local and political developments that affect the lives of ...

Former Senator Janet Cruz still remembers how her grandparents' clothes smelled of cigars when they returned home from Ybor City's historic cigar factories. She recalls a childhood where neighbors shared cultural nuances and best of all delicious food! Growing up in Tampa helped create the passion that drives her to ensure that children and families throughout Tampa Bay have the resources they need to live happy and supported lives...