Stick A Fork In It

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 kitchen, and what you should prepare for starting later this month!

Thanks to our partners at MOR-TV, you can watch this year's competition live on YouTube (@MORTampa), Facebook (@MORTampa), and on their website, www.mor-tv.com -- and be sure to follow @FeedingTampaBay on social media for more info!

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, or treasure to contribute to the cause.

Follow @FeedingTampaBay on social media to see all the opportunities we offer for getting involved with your community, and visit our website to donate or volunteer

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 and jingles, into breaking down barriers of understanding and possibility for the people who experience it.

Follow @FeedingTampaBay on your favorite social media platform, to see how you can experience the possibilities for yourself!

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 in our region. If you have a grade school student looking at home, visit workforcedevelopmentpartner.com to see what kinds of connections might be possible to ensure their future is a bright one!

Follow @FeedingTampaBay on social media to catch more opportunities offered by our network of brilliant, caring community partners.

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 get involved! Cereal for Summer runs through the end of May, and you can donate or learn more by visiting cerealforsummer.com.

Follow @FeedingTampaBay on social media to see just how much cereal we've collected this year, and all the other ways we're activating our community to make Tampa Bay a better place!

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 opening of our enormous new facility just a few weeks away, we're excited to give everyone a taste of what we can accomplish, together.

Follow @FeedingTampaBay on social media to stay in the loop about our new facility and services in the coming weeks!

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 helps us live longer while building community at the same time. AND she shares how those of us who aren't huge veggie fans can spice up our recipes to enjoy the nourishment our bodies need!

Be sure to visit the TampaWell website to learn more about their health app and volunteer opportunities. And check out the Sapphire Award we recently received from Florida Blue for our FoodRX program!

Find more healthy, fun recipes follow @FeedingTampaBay on social media.

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 our neighbors, and acts to be their voice ensuring that families and children have what they need to thrive. Tune in to learn how you can directly effect change in your community, as well.

Contact Lorena with questions you have about advocacy, at [email protected]

And follow @FeedingTampaBay to see how we're effecting change on a daily basis, and all the ways you can get involved in the fight to improve lives all around the region!

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. Join us as we discuss Tampa's rich history, the struggles of growing up in poverty and the resilience of never giving in, an important conversation we can all learn a little something from.

And follow @FeedingTampaBay on social media to see history in the making, as we work to end hunger in the Tampa Bay area!

Joining us again on today's episode is mental health expert, Natasha Pierre, to help us honor Women's History Month by talking about how women can make the present a historic time. We touch on the importance of mentoring, how role-modeling starts at home, and how to have compassion for the people who might misunderstand you out in the world. This episode is chock full of other powerful insights as well, so tune in to celebrate how badass women truly are year round!

Check out Natasha's previous episode with us here

Find the book Natasha mentioned here

And follow @FeedingTampaBay on social media to see what the women in our world are doing to end hunger each and every day.