TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Metropolitan Ministries Opens Market Full Of Choices

Tribune photo by JASON BEHNKEN

Jeannette Ruiz Torres helps a client with chosing food with working at the new Metro Market at Metropolitian Ministries Wednesday afternoon.

ADVERTISEMENT

By PHILIP MORGAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 13, 2008

TAMPA - Metropolitan Ministries today began a new way of providing food for the needy – they come in and "shop" for it.

Metro Market, which offers clients choices of free food items on a shelf – instead of boxing groceries for them – officially opened this afternoon in the Metropolitan Ministries building at 2301 N. Tampa St.

"Awesome," said client Samantha Stewart, 37, who picked her groceries off a shelf. "You can select what you need and there's no waste."

That's the reaction of most people who have been using the market on a test basis for the past three weeks, said Jeannette Ruiz Torres, a formerly homeless woman who lives at Metropolitian Ministries with her 9-year-old daughter, Carmen.

"They have a smile on their face, and that makes me happy," says Torres, who is working in the market as part of job training program.

Clients can still get their groceries already boxed, as before. Clients are allowed to use the free market three times a year, more often if a situation requires it, said Christine Long, senior director of programs.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT