ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — After providing a holiday tent assistance program in Tampa more than 40 years, Metropolitan Ministries is expanding its outreach and opening a tent in Pinellas County this season.

What You Need To Know

Metropolitan Ministries expands iconic holiday tent site to Pinellas County 

The St. Petersburg location at Holy Cross Catholic Church is expected to serve more than 5,000 families

Organization hiring for seasonal staff to help support holiday outreach efforts

 “We’ve done distributions out of the back of a truck and giving people food but this is more relational,” said Tim Marks, Chief Strategy Advisor and Former CEO of Metropolitan Ministries. “My role is to take what we’ve done in Tampa (and) make sure we do our best here in Pinellas to serve.”

The organization will offer hope, Marks says, to more than 5,000 families the organization is expected to serve.

“Some are struggling still from the hurricanes from last year. Others have economic storms and other storms of life that they’re facing. We want to bring hope and happiness to families over the holiday season,” he said.

Families can start registering online Oct. 20 for the tent that helps people through the Thanksgiving and Christmas season.

“You shop for the food you like for your family. You pick out the toys. It’s not Metropolitan Ministries that’s providing the toys; you want to give mom and dad the dignity of providing toys for their kids,” said Marks.

Holy Cross Catholic Church in St. Petersburg says parishioners are also excited about the expansion and ready to volunteer.

Metropolitan Ministries is also hiring for several temporary positions to help support what it calls Tampa Bay’s largest outreach initiative serving families in crisis over Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

“We’ve been seeing about a 15% increase in seniors struggling and needing help because they’re on fixed income. Their rent’s gone up, their food costs have gone up, utilities have gone up,” said Marks.

While setup is still in progress, the tent will soon be filled with people serving the community.