Positive Impact Ministries may be forced to relocate for weekly food giveaway

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) – In a little over a year, Positive Impact Ministries may have to move their food giveaways out of a food desert where, for years, they’ve served nearly 700 families a week.

A food desert is known as an area that has limited access to healthy and nutritious foods.

The hunger relief ministry fills that need by giving out free food every Saturday at Tangerine Plaza on 22nd Street South in St. Petersburg.

Ministry leaders said there is an agreement with the city and a company to put affordable housing and a grocer in the plaza. The company has 15 months to get financing for it. If that happens, Positive Impact Ministries would have to find another place to distribute their food.

“What are we going to do? Put a specialty grocery store in there? Who can afford that? No I think our neighbors need us in there,” Positive Impact Ministries Founder Karalynne Brubaker said. “If we do not get to stay there where are the neighbors going to go?”

Nichole Willingham uses their services.

“It’s hard for me to get food or keep food so I appreciate them very much. I’ve been going ever since they started,” Willingham said. “That’s the only place for this community to go and get food.”

She has a 3-year-old son. If she doesn’t get food from the giveaway, she has to catch a bus to Walmart. Ministry leaders said her neighborhood has been considered a food desert, and they’ve had a vision for the plaza to be a resource for the community.

“We would put a no cost neighborhood market. We will put a healthy food pharmacy, a culinary arts center, a community cafe,” said Karen Rae, the Executive Director of Positive Impact Ministries.

Rae said their plan would create more than 100 jobs and help stimulate the economy. But they said the city didn’t go for it when they presented it. Instead, they said the city is continuing a plan for affordable housing and a grocer in the plaza. It would force Positive Impact to relocate.

“Lets just say the rent there would be anywhere from [$1,700] to $2,700 a month, who can afford to live there?” Brubaker said. “It’s more than just giving somebody food. We’re saving a generation of children that need our help.”

Like Willingham and her family.

Ask yourself, if you were in need, what would be more important, free food or affordable housing?

“I would say food. Because we need food,” Willingham said.

“Food is the very first thing that people can kind of let go of. I call it a Spaghetti-O and Cheerio breakfast and lunch because they can’t afford any more than that,” Brubaker said.

For some, having a grocery bill taken care of would free up money for other needs. Though there can be a stigma associated with giving free food.

“That stigma is that those who are getting free food are lazy, entitled, unemployed, maybe drug addicted or have mental health issues and that is not true,” Rae said. “That description represents a very small percentage of the families and individuals that we provide groceries for. For us to be able to provide grocery for them is not a hand out, it is a hand up.”

Rae said they support working class people and anyone who comes with the need. They say people line 18th avenue south in cars and wait for hours to get food, telling them the need is there.

When Willingham learned what’s at stake, she shook her head in disbelief.

“That would really hurt me because they’ve been there so long,” Willingham said.

The ministry has looked at other places, and has even been invited to other locations around the city, should they have to relocate.

“But how can we do that? It’d feel like we’re turning our back on people we’ve been serving,” Brubaker said. “I don’t think we have an option until there is no option there for Tangerine Plaza.”

An email was sent to the city council member of the district over the plaza. The ministry leaders said they don’t feel the city has closed an ear to them but instead feel the city is going through with a process they’ve already had in place.

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