TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Hurricane Melissa took dozens of lives and left a trail of destruction in the Caribbean. On Saturday, several Tampa Bay chapters of fraternities and sororities from HBCUs collected food for hurricane victims.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Several Tampa Bay chapters of fraternities and sororities from HBCUs collected food for Hurricane Melissa victims
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On Saturday, roughly 300 cans of food were donated and 30 cases of water
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Organizers said donations can still be made at any Jerk Hut in Tampa<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have fruits and veggies,\u201d said volunteer Joshua Ritchie.<\/p>\n
As donations came in, about 50 volunteers, including Joshua Ritchie, sorted through the canned goods and hygiene products and packed them up.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo make sure we can do our part in our community \u2026 whatever we can do,\u201d Ritchie said.<\/p>\n
For the participating organizations, it\u2019s all about giving back to the community. The idea for the food drive came to Cliff Green of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. while he was sitting on the couch at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just started to run with it. I start speaking to other members of the fraternity, and they were very supportive, and everybody\u2019s just ready to do it. So that\u2019s how it all came together,\u201d Green said.<\/p>\n
About 300 cans of food and 30 cases of water were donated during their three-hour food drive outside of the Christian Praise and Worship Center in Tampa.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we were going through the experience that they\u2019re going through in this season, we would want someone to assist us, to help us in the time of need and for them right now, it\u2019s great need,\u201d said Reverend Dr. James Gallon, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a great need that is starting to be filled with the help of the Tampa Bay community.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my duty to do so, it\u2019s everybody\u2019s duty to do so,\u201d Ritchie said.<\/p>\n
Organizers said donations can still be made at any Jerk Hut in Tampa.<\/p>\n
They are working in connection with the Caribbean Community Association to make sure the donations get delivered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Hurricane Melissa took dozens of lives and left a trail of destruction in the Caribbean.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1011,274,28,1190,115,135,137,136,278,1374],"class_list":{"0":"post-29560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-app-human-interest","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-human-interest","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-tampa","14":"tag-tampa-headlines","15":"tag-tampa-news","16":"tag-top-stories","17":"tag-tyler-oneill"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}