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Grand Opening Set For I Am Hope Cafe

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By D'ANN LAWRENCE WHITE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 22, 2008

MANGO - The homeless and hungry need hope for help no more, at least when it comes to getting hot meals and regular helpings of companionship.

Starting Sept. 8, I Am Hope Café will serve hot meals four days a week to anyone in need.

The new soup kitchen run by the nonprofit Greater Brandon Ecumenical Ministries will operate in former Sunday school classrooms at First Baptist Church of Mango, 11619 E. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Mango, near the intersection of County Road 579. The church is lending the space for free.

Members of the ministerial organization, composed of churches and other faith-based groups, searched for a site for more than a year before the Revs. Billy and Vesta Dickerson of First Baptist offered space in an outbuilding at their church.

Vince Ferraro, president of the ecumenical ministries, believes it's an ideal spot because the church is near other places that already offer services for the homeless and indigent.

It's a few blocks from St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church on County Road 579, where parishioners feed the homeless and hungry two days a week. The church also is down the street from where Cynthia Pinckney Ministries feeds and clothes the homeless one Saturday each month.

In addition, the church is in an area already frequented by people seeking work at a couple of nearby day-labor agencies, and a well-known camp site for the homeless isn't far away.

"We're very pleased," Ferraro said. "We're anxious to get started. We've been waiting a long time."

Volunteers have been busy transforming three Sunday school classrooms into one 12- by 75-square-foot room with a kitchen and service station on one end and dining room on the other. They put fresh coats of paint on the walls and brought in a donated refrigerator and freezer and tables and chairs.

"We still need five or six 8-foot tables, but we're pretty well wrapping up the work that needs to be done," Ferraro said.

The soup kitchen will need a continuous supply of donated funds, bread, paper goods, utensils, condiments and other items.

There will be no cooking on site. Metropolitan Ministries in Tampa will donate food, including meat, vegetables, casseroles and potato dishes. Volunteers will supply salads, desserts, drinks and sandwiches to go.

Eventually, the group hopes to offer medical and social services, haircuts, clothing and toiletries.

Founding members of the ecumenical group are Bay Life Church, Concerned Action InChrist, the Emergency Care Help Organization, First Presbyterian Church of Brandon and the River of Life United Methodist Cluster, which is made up of seven United Methodist churches.

The group plans to form an auxiliary of volunteers who would like to be involved in the program but do not wish to be dues-paying members.

The soup kitchen will be open Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 to 11 a.m. St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church will feed the homeless from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays.

An open house and grand opening of I Am Hope Café will take place Monday, with refreshments at 6:30 p.m. and a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 7 p.m.

For information, visit www.IamHopeCafe.org.

Reporter D'Ann Lawrence White can be reached at (813) 657-4524 or dlwhite@tampatrib.com.

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