ST.PETERSBURG, FLA. \u2014 Back in January, Tampa Bay 28 anchor Deiah Riley first introduced you to Pastor Deborah Hill.<\/p>\n
At the time, Pastor Hill was overwhelmed after winning a $50,000 grant through the Tampa Bay Lightning Community Hero Award. She told Riley that every dollar would help feed food-insecure children in St. Pete through her non-profit, Bridge of Hope Kitchen.<\/p>\n
“Initially, it started behind those words,\u201d said Pastor Hill.<\/p>\n
“This is what started it. Who is Daisy Mae Hill?\u201d asked Riley.<\/p>\n
“That’s my mother. Yes, and she would always sit us around the table, and she would always say, if you have a piece of bread, everyone should have a piece of bread,\u201d explained Pastor Hill.<\/p>\n
In 2022, that simple lesson created Bridge of Hope Kitchen.<\/p>\n
Pastor Hill gave Tampa Bay 28 anchor Deiah Riley a tour of her building, where disadvantaged children in St. Pete find more than a hot meal. They find hope and opportunity.<\/p>\n
“I don’t want to see a kid falling between the gaps. I want them to all to succeed. So, I teach them. I start off with the basics,\u201d said Pastor Hill.<\/p>\n
Pastor Hill is the heart of this mission, her husband Lou is the muscle, and her volunteers are the army. Most of these people have full time jobs, but Deborah said this place is where the real work begins.
“When I get off work, I come in here, I roll up my sleeves, and I begin to help, because we have meals that have to go out,\u201d said Pastor Hill.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s one thing to hear Pastor Hill talk about her mission, but it\u2019s another to watch it unfold.<\/p>\n
Three nights a week, children ages four to 15 come here for tutoring and enrichment activities. Chloe Jordan\u2019s been coming here since the 5th grade and is now in 8th grade. Her reason for coming back is simple.<\/p>\n
“The teachers and Pastor Deborah. I have a peace of mind that helps me focus,\u201d explained Chloe Jordan.<\/p>\n
One of those teachers is Deirde Smith, who over the years has watched both GPA\u2019s and attitudes improve.<\/p>\n
“Every time they come in and show us their grades. They’re proud and it makes me feel good to know that they’re proud of their own success and if they’re doing 4.0 and 3.6 that means they’re grasping all of the concepts that we’re teaching them and I couldn’t be more proud,\u201d said Deirde Smith.<\/p>\n
Pastor Hill said this is a family and Bridge of Hope is determined to nurture and feed them.<\/p>\n
“Miss Daphne, she cooks hot meals, you know, like a dinner you would sit down to eat, and, like, matter of fact, today we’ll be having meatloaf and mashed potatoes and string beans and rolls, so she cooks a great hot meal for them,\u201d explained Pastor Hill.<\/p>\n
And for those who can\u2019t make it there\u2019s a mobile unit delivering meals.<\/p>\n
The $50,000 Community Hero Grant helped her reach more children in need and then six months later, lightning struck twice. This time on a national stage at the Kelly Clarkson Show.<\/p>\n
“Deborah you are not just a finalist you are in fact the G2 Pilot Pen overachiever’s grant winner.\u201d<\/p>\n
“I went there, believing, thinking that I am a finalist, and when I got there, oh my gosh, I was just overwhelmed, because I won. I actually won it,\u201d said Pastor Hill.<\/p>\n
She walked away with a check for $100,000, but the real reward is the impact she\u2019ll be able to make.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe in my heart of heart that this is an assignment that has been given to me while I’m here in the earth and I want to do my assignment well,\u201d explained Pastor Hill.<\/p>\n
Pastor Hill said she\u2019s like to expand her dining room to accommodate more children, but she needs more donations and volunteers.<\/p>\n
2026 has been a good year for Pastor Hill. In addition to her two unexpected blessings totaling $150,000, she was inducted into the St. Pere Senior Hall of Fame in April. Then, in May, St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch presented her with the key to the city.<\/p>\n
Share Your Story with Deiah![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/DeiahRiley.png\"\/)
Good Morning Tampa Bay Anchor Deiah Riley has called Tampa Bay for more than 15 years. As a mother of two, she knows the importance of a good education and strong role models. Reach out to Deiah with any education related stories or community leaders who deserve to be in the spotlight.
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![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ANNETTE.GUTIERREZ.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Lutz residents fight private school rezoning at county hearing<\/p>\n
More than 30 residents showed up to Hillsborough County’s Land Use Hearing to reject a rezoning proposal that would bring a 1,000-student private school to Lutz.<\/p>\n
Lutz residents oppose rezoning for private school citing traffic and safety concerns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST.PETERSBURG, FLA. \u2014 Back in January, Tampa Bay 28 anchor Deiah Riley first introduced you to Pastor Deborah…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[7071,34657,18782,5273,9662,202,204,203,199,201,200,5910,7194,208],"class_list":["post-311575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-children","tag-gmtb","tag-helping","tag-lifeline","tag-lightning","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa-bay-28","tag-volunteer","tag-wfts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311575","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=311575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}