Food Pantry, Meals on Wheels, + More: TB Network to End Hunger

Tampa Bay Network to End Hunger

Information on food programs in Hillsborough, Pasco, + Pinellas counties. Meals on Wheels, food pantries, mobile food pantries, etc. 

This site shows phone numbers, maps, and other contact info for dozens of programs around the area. 

There are also links for SNAP/EBT assistance (formerly known as food stamps) and hotlines for government programs for longer-term options.

Donations accepted! If you have excess food waste or compost to donate, they are accepting it via the Waste No Food app or site.

They also accept monetary donations to fill gap expenses and typical organisational costs like utilities.

Volunteers needed! Even if it's only one time a year, volunteers for all kinds of positions are wanted, even for tasks like packing meals for their delivery programs.

Free Hot Food: Zauq Pakistani + North Indian Restaurant

FREE meals for those in need! A hot, delicious, flavourful meal ready and prepared from Zauq Pakistani + N. Indian Restaurant 

404 W Waters Ave
Tampa FL 33614

near W Waters + N Dale Mabry Hwy.

ZauqTampa.com (link)
(813) 443-1720
bangashandsonsllc@gmail.com
Facebook (link)

And really, their food looks delicious, has great reviews, and is quite affordable given that a McDonald's value meal is often in the same price range. So if you have a few dollars to eat out and like this kind of food anyways, consider trying Zauq for your next destination! <3

Food Pantry: Tampa Free Fridge at Yung Ho Martial Arts Center

Tampa Free Fridge (link) is a free food pantry and mutual aid effort currently hosted at Yung Ho Martial Arts Center in Tampa. 

1303 E Busch Blvd
Tampa FL 33612

All up to date information is posted on their Instagram. Bus 39 accessible.

Fresh Food for Volunteering: Community Gardens

COMMUNITY GARDENS

Get plants! Trade plants! Volunteer. Learn things. Get help from people who know best! 

These groups often take your food and yard waste for compost (except for meats + dairy, used paper towels, and some other goods.) They also need volunteers to help with different types of gardening duties like soil management, weed pulling, picking fresh food, and more. Each garden has different needs, and needs change throughout the year. 

Community gardens are an excellent way to get exercise, meet neighbours + form strong social ties, and have access to the freshest foods possible.

Hillsborough County IFAS (link)

A listing site of various community gardens, plus how to start your own with your college, neighbourhood, or if you find the time and space to build one.

East Tampa Coalition of Community Gardens (link)

Fresh food in the food deserts of East Tampa! Get resources on healthy meal planning, recipes, snack ideas, easy to make smoothies (I freeze them for popsicles to keep fruits fresh all year!), and more. Also learn how you can plant your OWN small garden in an urban space!

Garden Steps Coordinator: Karen Elizabeth

Phone - 813-463-2660 (Call or Text)
Hours of Operation: Mon-Fri, 9:00 to 4:00

The Sustainable Living Project (link)

 

A community garden on a city lot. Grow, volunteer, learn about food production and the food cycle. Facebook (link)

 

Seminole Heights Community Gardens (link)

They accept composting materials all the time! Ask about volunteer work and visit the garden. Facebook (link)

Food Sustainability at Home: Urban Gardening in Your Apt or House

Have an apartment? Any kind of place to stay for an extended (more than a few weeks) period of time? 

 

Try growing some of your own food.

 

Some foods are honestly just pleasurable AND expensive, like fresh basil. A few leaves for $4 at a grocery store IF it doesn't have damaged leaves or other issues. Or an entire plant is $4... if you know what to look for at the garden centre so you don't accidentally pick a diseased plant. An increasingly difficult endeavor, it seems! But it's so much cheaper to grow certain things if you have a stable address expected to last 1 year or more. It's also pretty easy to learn tips and start with just one or two plants. 

There is no need for a whole garden. No one is competing for a magazine cover, here.

URBAN GARDENING: Gardening in the City

Protip: some foods aren't worth growing from home. These are your subsidized foods that need a lot of special work for low return, like carrots, potatoes, or corn. It's cheaper to buy them than grow them. Other plants, however, are very expensive compared to how much you might eat! These are your herbs like basil, mint, oregano, green onions, strawberries, etc. 

 

You don't have to start all from seed. Some can be started from cuttings and grocery store scraps.

 

These are some low-cost container ideas you might already have around: plastic waste like food cartons and milk jugs, egg cartons, etc. There's no reason to spend money on pots! And lots of people will give seeds or cuttings for free! Some even come with your usual grocery shopping, like the ends of green onions.

 

Seed starting + containers (link)

 

Growing food from cuttings + grocery scraps (link)

 

There are lots of systems like Aspara and others that have a light, water tank, and auto-watering system that runs on an electric cord and seed pods. Most quality ones run $150-300. They take the guesswork out of indoor herb gardening. 

 

Also, LED plant lights are available right next to other light bulbs at Walmart for around $5-8. My current garden is on shelving units, resting on top of an old shower curtain (to prevent water/dirt from getting on the utility closet ground). Every plant is in pots. 

 

For the cheap black nursery pots, which have large holes, I have found that plastic liners in the bottom is not great for the plants because the pots can't drain anymore or disperse excess water. However, newspaper seems fine AND it prevents dirt from coming out. 

 

Google or search Youtube for "urban gardening", "apartment gardening", or "grow food at home." Related searches might help, too. Many videos now exist for FREE to show you how to do things, and there are downloadable and printable tutorials online to get you started. Don't forget to use your free local library card to check out digital and in-person library books on the subject to help, too.

 

COMMUNITY GARDENS

Don't have space, time, ability, or skills/confidence to garden at home? 

 

Call or message a community garden! (link) Community gardens often trade food for service but may be able to work with you, depending on situation. We have an entire separate post about Community Gardens in Tampa.

Get plants! Trade plants! Volunteer. Learn things. Get help from people who know best!

Food Shipping Service: FullCart Groceries Online

Get a free box of groceries shipped to your address. It is a solution that is longer-term and worth applying for if you see yourself struggling to get food for more than a few months. Currently, the wait time is very long. 

FullCart COVID-19 Food Relief (link)

Full Cart is a service which ships groceries to home and which regularly has coupons on their cart services. This service is especially helpful for disabled people and people who do not have transportation to get groceries! 

If you find that their assistance program has been helpful to you, look into their program and see if it's right for you long-term.

Food Pantry for College Students: HCC + USF

College students ONLY:

 

If you are a University of South Florida or a Hillsborough Community College student with an ID, visit campus and ask about their food pantry program. If you belong to a different college, ask their Student Services Building or their SGA what is available.

 

At HCC, this program was run by the Humanities Dept. on the Dale Mabry campus in the Student Services Dept. However, there is a caveat: community college food pantries are often at-will disorganised "club" like departments with little or no official oversight or plans for continuity. Rely on this as a last resort option.

 

 

At USF, Feed a Bull food pantry is in the Student Services Building. You can see more about it including hours, location, and who to contact, here:

 

Feed A Bull Food Pantry (link)