Feeding initiative for those in need finds new site.
For years, around 5:00 p.m., anyone driving by Rowena Mays Athletic Park may have noticed a group of people gathered around the Planteen Recreation Center and the Winter Visitor Center. The reason is that normally, about 60 people in need were fed at the location. However, at the July 28 meeting of the City Commission, commissioners voted 5-0 to demolish the buildings due to their decrepit condition. So, the food program needed to relocate, and now runs at Shekinah Glory Cathedral on English Street. Currently, 20 to 40 people go there for the no-cost dinner.
The umbrella organization that administers the program is Generations Renewed: A Community Development, Inc. Over 30 different churches and organizations pitch in to help with this effort. Each organization signs up for certain days, supplies the food and volunteers to serve those who want a meal. The meals are served 365 days a year.
“Most people who come in, whether homeless or low income people, are needing help,” Karen Crumley, said. “It’s not just the homeless. Probably 40 percent are homeless and 60 percent are working people trying to make a living that are in need of help for a short time. Some come in with children, some are off the streets.”
Generations Renewed isn’t structured with an org chart. It is made up of people who step in to do what needs to be done to make sure people have at least one good meal a day. Crumley helps the effort by handling tasks that need computer work and administrative items like putting together a calendar. Kim Kitchen is the point person for building use. Dennie Crooks appeals to people and organizations to fill spots and distributes the calendar. “I am just like everybody else,” Crooks said. “I got in there and I saw a need, and filled that need. We are looking for people to fill in the spots. Nobody told me to do this. I just feel led to do it. It is really a God-led thing, honestly. It is His ministry. There is nobody really in charge. Everybody does their part.”
The organizations or their volunteers pay for the food. In some cases, they buy pulled pork from places like Fred’s Market or Felton’s Meat and Produce Market, two side dishes like coleslaw and baked beans, rolls, drinks, and something sweet. Some groups cook themselves, and bring the food in. Some volunteers bring blessing bags with them, which are hygiene kits to pass out to those who are homeless. The volunteers show up at 4:30 p.m. to prep, then serve the meals at 5:00 to a line of people. The servers have to clean up tables, chairs, countertops, and floors, and be off the property by 6:00 p.m.
Organizations generally sign up for multiple days a year. The Women’s Club of Plant City fills in three days a year, as does Allen Chapel AME. The First Baptist Church’s Live, Love, and Lift Sunday school class takes the third Monday of every other month. On October 20, nine people from the Sunday school class brought in meatloaf, green beans, mashed potatoes, cupcakes, and drinks.
“It’s a way of giving back to our community,” one of the group, Denise Mobley, said. “You hate to see people in their hard times, struggling, and this is just our way of helping to lift them up and ensure they have food. God has blessed us and this is a way of blessing them.”
“You see the same people over and over again, and they are appreciative,” Clayton Dean commented.
Crooks has been helping out with Generations Renewed for six years. “Most of our groups have been doing it for a while, and they do show up,” she said. “But the most difficult part is getting a phone call that somebody didn’t show up, and knowing these people were sitting there waiting, but they didn’t get served. To me, there is nothing difficult about doing what I do. It isn’t hard at all. In fact, I get joy doing it.”
There are no shelters for homeless people in Plant City. The nearest are in Lakeland. Some of the homeless who are fed in Plant City struggle with mental illness. There are some that just can’t make ends meet that are living in their car. Many of are addicted to either drugs or alcohol. “They go into rehab, they come back out. They go into rehab, they come back out,” Crooks said. “Jesus is the only answer, that’s for sure, but we have nowhere to go and actually minister to these people. Where is the place that these people can go and actually lay their head down and be ministered to, and possibly do it a different way? Look at the way the world is. Homelessness and addiction is worse and worse, is it not? It isn’t working. Something’s got to change. They need help. Give them a place that they could, at least, get a good night’s sleep. Give them a hand up instead of kicking them down. How are they supposed to get out of where they are if someone doesn’t reach down and help them? They don’t have showers. They don’t have bathrooms. I think the city should spend some of the money that they have, and they should try to help these people, and at least give them a place where they can lay their head, and a bathroom.”
There are several churches in the area that have their own initiatives to feed and help homeless people, but to date, outside of Generations Renewed, efforts in Plant City are disparate, and haven’t been combined into a city-wide initiative.
