The United Food Bank & Services (UFB) of Plant City has been a cornerstone in combating hunger and supporting residents in Eastern Hillsborough County since 1991. Under the leadership of President and CEO Mary Heysek since 2016, UFB has expanded its reach, distributed more than 4 million pounds of food and supplies and served more than 15,000 individuals monthly across a 10-city radius.
The mission of the United Food Bank & Services is to aid with the needy in moving them from a ‘state of hunger’ and ‘impoverishment’ to self-sufficiency, empowerment and self-reliance.
“Our vision is to stamp out hunger in East Hillsborough County and raise the standard of living for the truly needy,” said UFB’s chief operating officer, Angelica Lombrana. “Offering opportunities for self-improvement, education, job skills and enhancing life for individuals and families, thus affecting change for the community.”
UFB offers several programs to address food insecurity. Feeding Our Community provides on-site daily food distribution and off-site neighborhood outreach, offering clients a box of nutritious food that contains fresh produce, vegetables, meat, dairy and dry goods every two weeks.
For the Feeding Our Future program, “We partner with local schools to ensure children have access to nutritious meals during weekends and school breaks,” Lombrana said. “Currently, we are partnering with 17 local schools and serve 950 students each weekend. Our food break bags are provided every break that is a week or longer to any child that goes to a Hillsborough County Public School. We distribute around 1,200 break bags every break.”
For the Feeding Our Legacy program, “We provide a monthly client choice food distribution to in-need seniors by delivering healthy and staple food items and essential items, like adult diapers, over-the-counter medicines and household items, to two off-site locations, the Plant City Towers and the historic Glover School located in Bealsville,” Lombrana said. “This program serves almost 400 seniors.”
UFB also has a monthly mobile pantry. Its latest program is called F.E.E.D. (Food, Education, Empowerment for Development). Funding for this program is provided by the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County. The program focuses on educating the parents, grandparents and guardians of 6-to-14-year-olds about the correlation between nutrition and children’s early learning, aiming to enhance academic performance. Participants have access to a selection of new books to take home for their children or grandchildren.
“All participants also are being given a nutritious bag of food every time they attend class,” Lombrana said. “Recipes are demonstrated in class and students are learning just how good healthy can taste.”
UFB aims to expand the F.E.E.D. program to reach more families in the community, emphasizing the importance of nutrition in early childhood development and academic success.
If you would like to learn more about the programs offered at UFB, you can visit its website at https://ufbpc.org or call 813-764-0625, ext. 5. UFB is located at 702 E. Alsobrook St. in Plant City.
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