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Event is more than a giveaway

By ERNEST HOOPER
Published November 23, 2005

Folks sat on plastic patio chairs under the tent while a cool breeze filled the air Tuesday morning.

In front was a stage awaiting the next performer. The sound of cheery recorded music flowed from the speakers.

Some of the people snacked on potato chips while their kids munched on animal crackers. Others just sat and relaxed, enjoying another day in our sunny paradise. It was reminiscent of what you might see at an old-fashioned county fair. You could easily imagine someone stepping forward to announce who won the blue ribbon in the apple pie contest.

Only when you focused on the outer fringes of the tent did you realize that Metropolitan Ministries was in the process of distributing thousands of meals for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Combine the comfort in the center of the tent with the goodwill on its fringes, and you have a happening, an event, a celebration of community and hope.

Its spirit was contagious.

"What we're hoping is that there will be a child who won't have memories of coming to the red and white tent just to get food for Thanksgiving," said Cathy Capo-Stone, Metropolitan Ministries strategic planning officer. "We're hoping they will remember coming to this red and white tent to have a great time and then going home and having a great Thanksgiving."

If you haven't been to the red and white tent in a while, you may not recognize it. No longer does it look like a temporary warehouse. The walls are gone that used to divide the tent into storage areas. The transformation has generated warmth without the use of heating.

Volunteers and staffers often converse with the guests. Metropolitan Ministries president Morris Hintzman will not call them clients or underprivileged or needy or less fortunate. They are guests. Period. And they can stay as long as they want.

One-to-one, eye-to-eye contact is stressed. A Lakeland man who saw Hintzman on television drove all the way to Tampa just to speak to him. A disabled mother of five, including 15-year-old triplets, talked about how her faith helped her cope with sarcoidosis, an inflammation condition that affects her lungs.

Another woman came with a younger man she called her guardian angel because he took her in after she became homeless.

"It's gone from being something about food and turkeys and toys to being about people," said Hintzman, in his 25th year with the organization. "It used to be a food-in, food-out process, but these are people with great stories, some good, some tough."

The stories are growing more difficult. Hintzman said one woman who helped organize a food drive last year came this holiday season to get a meal because she was laid off.

More and more, it's not solely the homeless who flock to the tent, but working parents who simply can't make their dollars stretch. Competing needs make simple decisions difficult: Do I buy food for the kids or gas so I can get to work? Food or get fired? Do I buy groceries or pay the rent? Food or get evicted?

"We still have people who don't get it, who don't understand what it's like to have two or three kids hanging on your leg in the grocery store and you don't have enough money to feed them," Hintzman said. "You have single moms who realize they can't pay the light bill and then we impose this holiday on them. If they don't celebrate, their kids will ask, "What's wrong with us?'

"If we didn't do this, would people starve to death? No. Will they feel left out? Absolutely."

This year, it's easier than ever to make the "guests" feel included. Metropolitan Ministries has a shopping list you can use to help fill what they call Boxes of Hope. The approach helps them give complete meals. The cost, including the turkey, is about $33.

For information, go to www.metromin.org or call 813 209-1000.

Donations for Thanksgiving must be delivered by 8 tonight. Metropolitan is expected to give more than 3,500 families hope, encouragement and a holiday meal. They are folks who are climbing a tough mountain, and as Hintzman says, we should be willing to celebrate the fact they are climbing.

That's all I'm saying.

Ernest Hooper can be reached at 813 226-3406 or Hooper@sptimes.com

[Last modified November 23, 2005, 00:43:03]