Tag: community

Pictured Above: Grand Central Brewhouse has a European twist that will catch everyone’s attention.

Courtesy of Grand Central Brewhouse

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By Lauren Kemmish

Grand Central Brewhouse in Midtown St. Petersburg, also known as GCB , is an eco-friendly micro-brewery and beer garden that gives back to the community through charity work. 

Even in the midst of a pandemic, GCB still strived for success by not letting anything get in the way of having a successful brewery for the community to come together at the end of the day. There were some unforeseen roadblocks that were out of the brewery’s hands, but it all worked out in the end.

“Initially, the pandemic slowed construction, which delayed our opening,” owner of the brewery, Kevin Milkey, said. 

After the opening, the owners implemented extra safety precautions including nightly professional cleaning and an abundance of hand sanitizers. 

“All our staff wears masks, and we require customers to wear masks while they order and are walking around. We’ve also limited capacity to 50%. Fortunately, we have so much outdoor space that people feel comfortable being outside.”

St. Petersburg, especially the Midtown area, has quite a few well-known breweries within walking distance from each other but none of them are like GCB. 

In Europe, Mueller serving tanks have been used for decades because it is the best way to serve the freshest beer. The Mueller serving tanks have allowed for GCB to be more eco-friendly, by not needing the space for cold room kegs there is a reduced energy cost and more room for production. The tanks also use an air compressor to dispense the beer instead of CO2 that is harmful for the environment. 

The tanks are visible to the customers as they sit right behind the bar, but what really catches customers attention are the huge six copper serving tanks that hang over the bars that are self-cooling. The entire look of the brewery is very aesthetically pleasing. 

“Customers buy with their eyes, the innovative-looking copper tanks offer a visual advantage in the taproom,” Milkey said.

GCB being eco-friendly is just one of the amazing things that this brewery strives for as charity work and community are a big deal to the brewery too. Some of the charities that GCB works with are Daystar Life Center, Manners Housing Foundation, CASA, Girls Rock St. Pete and Friends of Strays. All brewery team members are able to nominate a charity that they are passionate about each month to help with making personal connections in the community. 

“Beer for the Bay” is a beer to support Tampa Bay Watch. 10% of sales from our Peninsular German Pilsner will support Tampa Bay Watch’s mission of protecting and restoring the Tampa Bay estuary through scientific and educational programs,” Milkey said. “This organization aligns with GCB’s concern for the natural environment and commitment to environmental stewardship.”

GCB is known for its easy drinking lagers that other breweries in the area don’t offer, along with pale ales, IPA’s, porters, wheat beers and some unusual beers. 

Along with donating to charities, the brewery hosts fundraising events and the entire brewery team participates in volunteer work. The brewery hosts a lot of events for fun as well, such as Dortmunder Day for Tampa Bay Beer Week, but the biggest event is a German Beer Day Celebration, featuring several German beers and food with a Polka band. 

The taproom on the first floor is 2,000 square feet that has tables and the main bar and upstairs is a bar that is used for events along with an open terrace with lounge seating. There is plenty of room for all customers to safely spread out inside, but there is even more space for people to socially distance outside. 

“GCB has an expansive traditional beer garden with traditional beer garden tables from Germany. Live music is played in the beer garden Friday-Sunday, there are many different environments to enjoy a craft beer,” Milkey said.

Even though Milkey worked in insurance, his passion is in craft beer. His entire family loves  to visit breweries, pubs and beer halls all over the U.S. and Europe for inspiration. After retiring from the insurance business, he decided it was time for him to open his own brewery. A lot of GCB is inspired the family’s world travels. Milkey participated in USF St. Petersburg’s Brewing Arts Program where he learned how to brew beer and gained a lot of knowledge that has helped him operate GCB successfully. 

“Picking one beer to drink for the rest of my life is a really tough question because I really like all types of beer and usually my favorite is the one, I’m drinking at the time,” Milkey said. “But, for picking one for the rest of my life would have to be our Plzensky Czech Pilsner.”

One of the main goals for the brewery is to brew the best quality beer possible, but the brewery also focuses on the three P’s: People, Planet and Profit. The brewery looks at their positive impact on the community and environment to measure their success.  

There is nothing quite like walking into Grand Central Brewhouse, seeing all of the European inspired décor while being able to sit outside in the beer garden or indoors looking over St. Petersburg in the second story. 

GCB’s conscious effort to help our planet and help the community is another reason to stop by for a brew. People can catch up with old friends or make new ones as there are new people in the brewery every day. 

Pictured Above: 3 Daughters Brewing has many performers that are local with plenty of room for socially distancing. (USF/Lauren Kemmish)

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By Lauren Kemmish

3 Daughters Brewing in Midtown St. Petersburg is more than just a place to get a bite to eat and a beer to drink with friends, it is an establishment that cares about leaving a positive impact on the community. 

Mike and Leigh Harting, owners of 3 Daughters Brewing, were ready to open a brewery but could not settle on a name until they were joking with some friends about how many beers they will have to brew to put their three daughters through college, and then 3 Daughters Brewing was born in 2014. 

Unlike the name, there is not much significance when it comes to the location of 3 Daughters Brewing. 

“It all came down to the industrial city zoning,” Mike Harting said. Since the brewery is also a manufacturer, we did not have as many options when it came to picking a location.” 

The brewery is working on opening more tasting locations in Bradenton or Tampa in the coming future. Although the Hartings did not have much of a choice in picking a  location, they have made a big impact in the Midtown community. 

Due to the location being in an industrial zone, the outside of the brewery looks like a big warehouse which does not make it seem inviting. But inside, there’s a huge concert stage with tables all around and a tasting room. This brewery is so spacious with a lot of room for social distancing which is why the brewery is still allowed to have local bands perform. 

The brewery offers so much more than craft beer. It  is dedicated to giving back to the community through charity work, volunteering, hosting events and making hand sanitizer. 

COVID-19 hurt most businesses around the world, some survived and some didn’t. 3 Daughters Brewing faced many challenges, including having to lay off their entire staff not once, but twice. Thankfully, all staff members were able to make a return to the brewery once places started opening up again. 

While being closed due to COVID-19, the brewery was able to make a few positive impacts, such as expanding on the brewery and making hand sanitizer for first responders, healthcare workers, essential workers and the community. During the pandemic, the brewery was able to produce over 4,000 gallons of hand sanitizer and donate it all to those who needed it the most. 

“We have permanent safety and cleaning protocols in place now, along with staff members who are dedicated to sanitizing frequently touched surfaces. We make sure we follow all local guidelines and laws to ensure our staff and guests are safe,” general manager, Christian Harris, said. 

3 Daughters Brewing loves hosting events, they have a variety to offer to the community and have local artists perform, small businesses supporting each other. The events are great for tourists to get a feel for the Midtown community and attracts visitors from surrounding areas. The Crawfish Boil is a big event that began five years ago for employees and some regulars, but it grew in popularity so now tickets can be purchased and anyone with a ticket may enjoy crawfish, good music and catch up with the community. 

“To help limit gatherings at the bars, we opened satellite bars to alleviate some congestion. We added more staff to help speed up transactions and cleaning, but the brewery does rely on our guests to do the responsible thing by wearing masks and practice social distancing,” Harris said.

Hosting events gives the community an opportunity to come together. Another way that 3 Daughters supports its community is by donating. Certain criteria do need to be met in order to get approved for a fundraising event such as, must be a 501(c)3 charity and the request must be at least a month before the wanted date for the event. 

Alongside being highly involved with the community, 3 Daughters Brewing is also environmentally cautious.  The brewery looks for several things when choosing vendors, “measure and minimize the footprint of their operations and products by looking at transportation, packaging, waste energy, toxicity, water, and GHG emission, creates a high involvement corporate culture which values and rewards everyone’s contributions, have a management system which demonstrates environmental commitment by setting goals and regularly reporting, work with other to improve the sustainability of their industry”. 

There is never a dull moment in the Midtown area or for 3 Daughters Brewing with so many events taking place. 

“Some upcoming events for people to look forward to are Doggy Noses and Yoga Poses, Paints Pints Plants, Mother’s Day Market, Father’s Day BBQ and Silent Disco, just to name a few,”Harris said. 

All events are listed on the website with detailed information. 

3 Daughters Brewing has been spotlighted in multiple news sources ever since they opened because the business really has made a positive impact on the community. The brewery has 394 reviews on Yelp with a 5.5-star rating. Based on reviews, the community loves a place to go to catch up with each other, get drinks and food, play games such as darts and shuffleboard, listen to local bands perform, sit inside or outside and the list goes on. The brewery has done so well over the years their beers can be found all throughout Florida
3 Daughters Brewing is overall a well-rounded establishment. From it being a family owned and operated business, caring about the safety of staff and guests with COVID-19, taking cleaning measures seriously, being environmentally friendly, giving back to the community and contributing to distributing hand sanitizer to hospitals who were in desperate need is the icing on the cake. 

For those who are interested in learning the art of brewing craft beers, 3 Daughters Brewing has partnered with USF, St. Petersburg campus for a 23-week program. It is offered twice a year and allows for students to get the certificate while completing their other college courses. This online course allows for those who want to be successful in the craft beer industry to do so from anywhere in the world. 

Pictured Above: Volunteers working with one of the youth as they prepare to move fresh soil. (USF/Nicole Billing)

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By Emily Heise and Nicole Billing

The St. Pete Youth Farm isn’t just growing fresh fruits and vegetables; they’re expanding access to healthy nutrition in south St. Petersburg.

Midtown, located in south St. Petersburg, has been without a local, full-service grocery store for over four years, leaving the community to come up with creative ways to provide nutritious, healthy foods to the community.

The St. Pete Youth Farm is a youth development program and urban farm located at Enoch Davis Center in the South St. Petersburg Community Redevelopment Area. The area was developed to promote job and education growth as well as reinvestment in housing and neighborhoods. It is one of the largest CRAs in Florida.

Youth-led and partnered with dozens of community organizations, the farm functions to ensure nutritional security for the people of south St. Petersburg while fostering a healthy learning environment for young people. High school participants pick up valuable skills such as entrepreneurship, financial literacy and leadership, among farming and culinary expertise.

Carla Bristol, the farm’s collaboration manager since 2019, has worked tirelessly as the farm transformed from an empty plot of land to a flourishing, working farm, complete with an irrigation system and greenhouse.

Using surveys and meetings, the farm’s team grows the foods that the community asks for, such as onions, tomatoes, collards and kale. Classes are held to teach residents about farming in their own homes, culinary skills and nutrition.

“Just the knowledge the community will gain from having this working farm here will allow a lot more independence and self-reliance,” Bristol said.

Daphne Gardner, APRN, FNP-C, is the owner and founder of Infinity Health Consultants located at the James B. Sanderlin Family Center. With her 26 years of nursing experience in St. Petersburg, she has witnessed the many changes in the community’s access to healthy and nutritious foods.

“In the area that I serve, which is the south St. Petersburg area, we don’t have a great deal of access to healthy foods,” Gardner said. “A lot of the area doesn’t have a nearby community grocery store… so it’s kind of difficult for those in the community to be able to eat a healthy diet, get healthy foods, and healthy nutrition.”

The farm, which is still a work in progress, plans to hold future markets where the people of south St. Petersburg can have access to nutritious foods. For now, they hold workdays where the community comes together to work on the farm and learn about nutrition. The turnout is always great, with volunteers and neighbors eager to help the effort, shovels in hand.

As Bristol always says, “Many hands make light work.”

One of the major factors that has impacted Midtown is the absence of full-service grocery stores and access to fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables. Gardner explained that having access to local, nutritious foods is extremely important to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

“Either way, if there’s low nutrition of course you can have weight loss,” Gardner said. “Low healthy nutrition you can also have weight gain in addition to weight loss because the body is not metabolizing well and it’s just kind of sucking up all of those fatty foods.”

Anaya Graham is a high school sophomore who has been a youth ambassador for the program since 2019. Next week, she will meet with the Florida Department of Agriculture in Tallahassee to discuss the success of the farm.

She loves meeting new people through the farm and feels it has equipped her with many important skills she will carry into her future. Graham has also learned more about her community and nutritional security. 

“I didn’t know much about food deserts until [the farm staff] told us that I personally was actually living in one all these years,” Graham said. “I thought having fast food places everywhere was normal until they broke everything down for us and told us how these fast food places were taking over our health.”

Some local businesses, such as Joe Brady’s Bait & Tackle, began stocking their shelves with fresh fruits, vegetables and seedlings. The owners grow the plants right in front of the shop, making it easy for residents to access fresh produce while also getting their corner store goodies, like chips and beer.

“Being able to empower these small, local, Black-owned businesses within the south St. Petersburg CRA and incentivize them to offer fresh produce as well, is a direction that I would like to see us take,” Bristol said. 

Wendy Wesley, RDN, owner and founder of Wendy Wesley Nutrition, shared that within Midtown, there is a 42-square block area of St. Petersburg with no full-service grocery stores. This means that residents would need either reliable transportation to travel to a grocery store or go to gas stations and dollar stores.

“When you don’t have access to fresh produce, and basically everything that you would find in a full-service grocery store, which is meat, dairy, whole-grains, fresh produce, frozen produce, all of it, a lot of my patients were eating out of gas stations and dollar stores,” Wesley said. “Those foods are very high in sodium, low fiber, low nutrient and that is not how you manage chronic disease.”

Both Walmart and Winn Dixie were once located in south St. Petersburg, but they eventually pulled out of the area. Since then, there have been no proper grocery options besides numerous dollar stores and gas stations.

“It’s been four years since that store closed, and I think it’s time that the city makes good on its promise to put a grocery option there,” Wesley said. “Four years is a long time to manage chronic disease without access to nutrient dense foods.”

Both Gardner and Wesley explained that they treat patients of all ages from St. Petersburg with chronic diseases, including obesity, diabetes, cardiac disease and kidney failure. Their patients would admit they know how to eat, but the food generally does not exist in their community.

“Chronic disease worsens when you don’t have access to food,” said Wesley.

Bristol explained that food is essential, meaning south St. Petersburg cannot rely only on big corporations to meet the community’s needs because of the unpredictability of corporate decisions.

“I just want to see patients healthy and thriving, functioning and making the right choices in their lives so that they can live better, healthier lives,” Gardner said. “I just want the community to stay healthy and stay informed, most of all.”

Pictured Above: Entrance sign at the Gulfport Brewery + Eatery. (USF/Catalina Rasdall)

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By Catalina Rasdall

First Friday in Gulfport is an event that brings all types of people together to share one common interest – art. People with multiple talents come out to show their work to the public. Aside from the art brought by the vendors, there was also the art of food. 

There is a place for all appetites. Gulfport Brewery + Eatery, the only brewery in Gulfport, is where you can get fine craft beer along with original entrees. And the petite ice cream joint Let It Be, delivers homemade ice cream in a family setting. 

Gulfport Brewery + Eatery, “Where Gulfport Gathers,” has only been in business since July 2020. The owners felt lucky when they stumbled upon the available location.

“We were thrilled to have landed this location; we weren’t looking at the time but thankful that it was open,” The brewery’s owner said. 

This small craft brewery is very different from a typical brewery because of its unique interior and exterior design. It is designed and decorated around the structure of the house it is in. As soon as you walk in you get the feeling of having a large cookout at a neighbor’s house, and you are just going inside for a quick drink before going out to mingle. 

There is an endless list of draft beer on tap which included Gulfport Gold Ale, Gulfport Port Pride and the Gulf Porter. On First Friday, the owners of the brewery offer samples of their beer outside which consist of an English Red Ale to satisfy fruit lovers with a subtle flavor of apple. Inside, a multiple dining set around the fireplace can be seen, which is a part of the house structure. 

The environment of the brewery allows customers to come in and enjoy their beer in a family setting. After purchasing a beverage, it can be taken out to the lit up backyard of Gulfport Brewery + Eatery. The outside beer garden area is filled with patio furniture set underneath the tree string lights. This section of the brewery is what they are most proud about because it allows for safe mingling keeping in line with social distancing.

Gulfport Brewery + Eatery came to Gulfport while the pandemic was at its peak. They were welcomed with open arms by the community and made it their number one priority to ensure safety for all their customers. One of their major ways to guarantee safety was to make the beer garden as open and spaced out as possible. 

Gulfport Brewery + Eatery doesn’t only have handcrafted beer, but also a full menu ranging from delicious starters such as beer boiled peanuts which are cooked in their red ale to beer pretzel containing their beer cheese. These appetizers incorporate the brewery’s well-known beer mixed with their own special ingredients to create unique shareables. The appetizers represent the homestyle feeling of Gulfport Brewery + Eatery. 

Their entrees include gourmet dogs such as, Bad & Bougie which include two all-beef Memphis style hotdogs made with barbeque, bacon, sharp cheddar cheese and scallions. A perfect entrée to share with a date or a friend. 

The Gulfport dogs are two all-beef hot dogs wrapped in bacon, drenched in a pineapple jalapeno salsa and served with any choice of chips. This entrée represents the weirdness that is Gulfport Brewery + Eatery. 

There is always something new at Gulfport Brewery + Eatery, you can check on their social media, @Gulfportbrewing, for their daily specials or of course, ask the bartender. The brewery allows you to taste various beers and enjoy delicious appetizers and entrees at a reasonable price.

“Keeping Gulfport weird” is Gulfport Brewery + Eatery’s motto, and in comparison with other bars and restaurants, they are staying true to their motto. 

The exterior of the house is modest and welcoming, there is nothing traditional when comparing it to other breweries with their spacious lit beer garden. The interior of the house allows for conversation and time spent with friends and family. 

After one of Gulfport Brewery + Eatery Gulfporter and their well-known 420 stack nachos with pork, beef or chicken, it is time for dessert. Keeping in theme with family style eatery, Let It Be ice cream has homemade ice cream and milkshakes for an affordable price. 

Let It Be ice cream creates homemade small batch flavors daily. These flavors include: chai matcha, chocolate peanut butter, banana pudding and so much more. 

Let it be ice cream shop instantly welcomes you with friendly workers who are ready to serve customers. The ice cream is owned and run by Janet Impastato and Tina Grello. Their shop was only a walk-up window in August 2019. Now they operate as a full-service ice cream shop near by their original window where it all began.

Ice cream is always a hard dessert to decide on but that is not an issue at Let it Be. They allow you to sample any flavor of ice cream to ensure you get the best experience. 

First Friday in Gulfport opens your eyes to  local businesses with great, different personalities. Gulfport Brewery + Eatery embraces the weird and wants to incorporate its own style into Gulfport. They bring you a grand beer garden open enough to have a cookout with new friends. Let It Be ice cream shop lets you try new flavors handcrafted daily. With excellent customer service helping you spend time with the people you are sharing your ice cream time with. 

Go on down to First Friday in Gulfport. Gulfport Brewery + Eatery and Let It Be ice cream shop are only a few places out of many that have yet to be discovered. 

By Olivia Sawdy

Food and nutrition insecurities have been going on in Midtown in St. Petersburg for thousands of days. 

In 2017, Walmart decided to close its Neighborhood Market in St. Petersburg, Midtown neighborhood causing the town to no longer have a grocery store in a convenient location. 

Since the only grocery store in Midtown closed, food and nutrition insecurity began to spread in the community once again. 

Many people living in this area have a low income and do not have the resources to drive to a distant grocery store or even afford what it would take to get to those grocery stores. 

Of course, there are dollar stores and gas stations in the area that can help compensate for some of the food insecurity, but the majority of the food that you can find at dollar stores and gas stations is junk food and snacks. 

With that being said, what is more of a concern for this community is the amount of nutrition they are receiving. They have few resources to obtain food, but when it comes to being healthy and eating nutritious meals, the community struggles. 

Wendy Wesley, a clinical dietitian, describes Midtown as being more “nutrition insecure” rather than “food insecure.”

“Nutrition insecurity is meeting the nutrition needs of our city with unprocessed fresh produce, meats and dairy,” Wesley said. 

About three months ago, Wesley served as a panelist for Churches United for Healthy Congregations and explained the differences between “nutrition insecurity” and “food insecurity.” 

“The other members on the panel agreed that the community is only being treated for hunger rather than their overall health,” Wesley said. 

While there are Dollar Tree stores and gas stations in Midtown, much of what the community can find is processed food that is not necessarily good for its health. 

With that being said, although not ideal, there are some options in the Dollar Tree that can be a healthier substitute to much of the junk food that is offered there. 

At the Dollar Tree, you can find canned and frozen fruits and vegetables, frozen chicken and fish, pasta, eggs, fruit juice, peanut butter and trail mixes. 

It has been over 1,000 days since this community has had a grocery store available to them, so they have to work with the resources they have. 

Meals can be made from the food in the Dollar Tree. They can be somewhat healthy and give the community some the nutrition they are striving for. 

There are recipes on the website that can be followed and everything in the recipes can be purchased in the Dollar Tree. 

They have recipes for main dishes, appetizers and dips, breakfast and more. 

One meal that can be found at the Dollar Tree is spaghetti and meatballs. Everything needed for this meal can be found in the Dollar Tree and is very easy to make. 

All that is needed is some kind of noodles, pasta sauce and frozen meatballs. This meal has carbs from the pasta, vegetables from the pasta sauce and protein from the meatballs. A side of broccoli or other vegetable can also be added to this meal. 

A healthy snack from the Dollar Tree can be rice cakes with peanut butter. It is 70 calories per rice cake and 90 calories per tablespoon of peanut butter. This snack is also very filling.

The nutrition insecurity that the community is experiencing can cause health problems such as diabetes, cardiac disease and even kidney failure. 

With the pandemic still in full force, it is very hard for those in this community to get what they need and with other underlying conditions, can be dangerous for them to risk going out to get their essentials. 

COVID-19 has impacted everyone and for a community that is already low income and has so many unavailable resources the pandemic has not made things any easier. 

“To work on improving nutrition insecurity in St. Petersburg, a group of concerned citizens and I have formed a new coalition called “Nutrition Equity St. Pete” where we will take one nutrition-related issue at a time and provide education, build support and create opportunities for activism,” Wesley said. 

As a dietitian, Wesley hears many stories from clients about not being able to lead a healthy lifestyle because of their need for nutrition rather than just having food. 

“I introduced myself to him as his dietitian. I reviewed all of the foods he should be eating and what he should be avoiding. He let me know that he knows how he should be eating but the food does not exist in his neighborhood,” Wesley said. 

This is not the only time Wesley has had encounters like this. 

Wesley has been a very strong advocate for getting a grocery store back into Midtown so those living there can keep up with their health and well-being. 

The plaza where Walmart and Sweetbay once sat had been empty since 2017. 

The city reports that a developer with a grocery store tenant will come in later this year. This will be an amazing opportunity for those who need to get their nutrition back on track. 

By Madison Hursh

In the Midtown neighborhood of South St. Petersburg, there is an ongoing shortage of grocery stores and nutritional food options. The last grocery store in the neighborhood closed in February 2017. This store was a Neighborhood Walmart. 

The definition of a food desert is an area where people live more than one mile from a supermarket in urban areas, or 10miles away in rural areas. It is an area where people have limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Between the shortage of grocery stores and a lack of transportation, many people have had no option but to live off of a “gas station diet” meaning, the food they are eating is coming from the nearest corner store or gas station. 

Pinellas County schools offer free meals and snacks to the kids countywide. This is a part of the United States Department of Agriculture Free School Lunch program. Meals are available at certain schools for children and teens under 18 years old. Starting in October 2020, meals and snacks became available for all children regardless of the school district that they are in. Up to seven days of meals are available for take out. 

Lynn Geist, the director of food and nutrition in Pinellas County, stated that the healthy foods provided are to promote healthy growth and development in children. 

There are 30 schools in Pinellas County that offer the free meals. Parents or guardians can stop by one of the schools that partake in the program. Pick up is Thursdays from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. The child does not have to be present and an ID is not required. 

According to WTSP -TV 10, Tampa/St. Petersburg, kids living in food deserts may be at a higher risk of cancer. Researchers say that the lack of access to healthy food can be linked to cancers. Lack of access to healthy food also leads to obesity and other various health concerns. It is believed that resolving the food desert situation will prevent a large number of cancers in adulthood in the Tampa Bay Area. 

The YMCA of greater St. Petersburg also provides free meals for students in the childcare system. 

According to Eric Ventura, the previous childcare director at the Lealman campus, since the start of the pandemic, the YMCA offered full-time childcare camps for healthcare workers and a 10 week summer camp for students in Tampa Bay. These camps

included two provided snacks and a free lunch for all children. Any meals and snacks leftover were given to students in need. 

“We usually knew which students would come back for seconds. It’s typically the same students everyday that take the leftovers,” Ventura said. “I think the parents appreciate the free meal options, we don’t have many students bring their lunch from home.” 

The YMCA also has various food trucks and ice cream trucks come to the schools to celebrate good behavior. 

An anonymous student who attended the summer camp with the YMCA said the free meals and snacks made her family very happy because “they know I was eating yummy foods.” She said her favorite meal was “pizza party Fridays.” 

Rob Dudley, YMCA childcare leader, explained that even though the students received free meals, he would still have kids come to him asking for food. 

“I would bring in my own snacks and fruit to hand out to the kids to take home,” Dudley said. 

The food desert forces children to come home from school with a shortage of food options. 

The national school lunch program was established under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch act, signed into law by President Harry Truman in 1946. About 7 million children participated in the first year, and in 2010, the program reached its highest number of participants at 31.8 million children. 

COVID-19 has led to a dramatic increase in the food insecurity problem in Pinellas County. According to Feeding Tampa Bay, there are nearly 124,000 Pinellas County residents who are food insecure. 

The pandemic has caused a dramatic drop in meals provided by schools across the U.S. A report from the Food Research and Action Center showed that there was a 54% drop in breakfasts and a 70% drop in lunches from October 2019 to April 2020. Schools have had to adapt to coronavirus guidelines when distributing food, in order to maintain safety of the recipients. 

With these numbers dropping, families in the food desert who do not have the means to buy fresh and nutritional food are stuck having to live off of these gas station diets. Junk food can be found everywhere, but fresh fruits and vegetables are hard to find in a food desert. 

Since the closing of the last grocery store in Midtown and South St. Pete, Nikkol Patton, Pinellas County resident, founded the South St. Pete marketplace which is a local farmers market with fresh produce. 

Patton explained that she saw the need for a grocery store increase since the pandemic sparked. Starting in early November, the St. Pete market place opens in the parking lot of the Manhattan casino. 

“So many people from my community are struggling to afford taxis and rideshare services to take them to get groceries,” Patton said in an interview with Patch.com. 

The nearest grocery to the Manhattan Casino is the Walmart on 34th street south. This is approximately three miles away. 

As of November 2020, the St. Petersburg City Council has agreed to take measures to deal with food insecurity by creating a Food Policy Council. The goal for this council is to open a grocery that not only feeds the food desert, but is also an economic development for Midtown/South St. Pete. 

For more information on family meal distribution, you can visit Pinellas County Schools Food and Nutrition website to find the distribution locations and times.