After eight years of serving the community, Feeding Tampa Bay is closing its Trinity Cafe at the Busch Boulevard location.
“The Trinity location on Busch for a long time was an important and integral part of our service profile. But over time, the number of people using that service has continued to decline,” said Thomas Mantz, president and CEO of Feeding Tampa Bay.
At one point, the Busch Boulevard location was serving 350 people; that number has gone down to 200.
Mantz said that doesn’t mean the need is any less; rather, there are other resources in the area that people are using, too.
“Which is another reason why we felt comfortable making the decision, is we’re not pulling resources from folks that are already using other opportunities, which is terrific,” said Mantz.
The non-profit will redistribute any available resources to its other facilities, including two other Trinity Cafes in different areas.
“I think for an organization like Feeding Tampa Bay, there are a wide variety of needs across the 10 counties we serve. Part of our job is to make sure we’re putting resources where they are most needed and most critical,” said Mantz.