Feeding Tampa Bay Offering Free Christmas Eve Meal

TAMPA, FL — Feeding Tampa Bay is offering a free Christmas Eve meal on Wednesday, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at its new Causeway Center, 3624 Causeway Blvd.

Lunch will include chicken parmesan, pasta, broccoli, garlic bread and salad.

Guests will also be sent home with a prepared Christmas dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes and green beans, Rhonda Gindlesperger, chief operating officer, told Patch. “So, a more traditional Christmas meal.”

The organization, dedicated to providing groceries, meals and other resources to those in need within a 10-county region, opened its Causeway Center in May 2024.

With the new facility, Feeding Tampa Bay also shifted its operations. The nonprofit now offers workforce training and development, and also welcomed other organizations — including BayCare, Metropolitan Ministries, TECO and legal services — into the new space, creating “a one-stop shop,” she said.

With this move, the nonprofit is “shifting from feeding the line to shortening the line. We’ve really evolved into partnership and supporting our neighbors in a way that meets them where they’re at,” Gindlesperger said.

This past Thanksgiving was the first time Feeding Tampa Bay has hosted “a meal of that scale or size” at the new center, she said.

The organization aimed to provide a meal for those in need and create a welcoming space for those who had nowhere else to go for the holiday.

One moment truly exemplified the community they were trying to build, Gindlesperger said. “I remember looking over and seeing three individuals sitting at a table that did not come together … Connection happens around a table. So much happens around a table and food. It was amazing. These three individuals who probably would have been alone on Thanksgiving, connected, had smiles on their faces and were enjoying a meal with strangers, perhaps friends walking out.”

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