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Mango Soup Kitchen Projects HOPE

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 30, 2008

MANGO - A two-year effort to open a soup kitchen to help the area's homeless will pay off Sept. 8, when a cafe-style eatery opens in a former cluster of Sunday school classrooms.

A coalition of churches and social service organizations called Project HOPE, an acronym for Helping Other People Excel, will serve meals to the homeless and indigent at the I Am Hope Cafe at First Baptist Church of Mango, 11619 E. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., near the intersection of County Road 579.

Volunteers will serve hot meals from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays and from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturdays. Project HOPE's partner, nearby St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church at 4450 County Road 579, will serve meals at that church from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays.

The Revs. Billy and Vesta Dickerson of First Baptist are providing space for the cafe at no charge in what used to be three Sunday school classrooms. Meals will be donated by Metropolitan Ministries in Tampa.

Members of the coalition will make monthly donations to offset costs. Each of the five churches and nonprofit agencies also will provide 10 to 15 volunteers one day a week to serve meals.

For information, visit www.Iam HopeCafe.org.

D'Ann Lawrence White

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