INTERVIEW: Kara Chalmers
One Thanksgiving, years ago, when he worked in the financial industry in Manhattan, Thomas Mantz decided he’d like to volunteer at a food bank for the holiday.
He called a local bank and asked if he could help. The man who answered the phone said thanks, but no.
“He said, ‘We don’t need you. Everyone and their brother want to give out food on Thanksgiving. People are hungry 365 days a year. Come another day,'” Mantz said.
What the man said stuck with Mantz, and a few months later, he found himself volunteering for God’s Love We Deliver. Its mission is to help people with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other serious illnesses by preparing and delivering nutritious and free meals to people too sick to feed themselves.
Mantz chopped vegetables, answered phones and met many people he probably wouldn’t have met otherwise. Six months after that, he gave notice at his job.
Since then, Mantz has spent 20 years in the nonprofit sector, believing he has an opportunity and obligation to serve. His first nonprofit job was as Executive Director at Second Harvest North Florida in Jacksonville, where he worked for two years.
In 2012, Mantz became Executive Director of Feeding Tampa Bay, and he has led the organization since, as President and CEO. Feeding Tampa Bay runs mobile food pantries and Mega Pantries (including one at DeSoto Square Mall in Bradenton, held at 3:30 on Tuesdays). The organization served more than 65 million free meals last year.
Mantz said he was drawn to Feeding Tampa Bay partly because of its broad scope and size – it serves 10 counties in west Florida, including Manatee County. That means that if there’s an excess of food in one county, it can be given to another county in need.
He was also drawn to the organization because of its mission, which is two-fold: to give people food and to make them aware of other sources of help.
“When someone comes in for a meal, we say, ‘Here. Here you go,'” Mantz said. “But philosophically, it’s just as important to us to get someone out of a food line as it is to feed them.
Also, part of its mission? Feeding Tampa Bay provides rewarding volunteer opportunities.
“Volunteering connects you to your better self,” Mantz said.
Feeding Manatee
According to Mantz, people use food banks more than any other type of charity. That puts Feeding Tampa Bay in a unique position to introduce the people it feeds to many other community partners that could help with other matters, such as health care, housing, financial planning, legal help, or early learning. In Manatee County, Mantz is working to build a network of such partnerships.
“Most of the people that qualify for benefits don’t know they qualify,” Mantz said. “It is an urban myth that there are a group of people out there figuring out a way to live off of free government benefit programs.”
Also, beginning in 2021, Feeding Tampa Bay will start branding locally, meaning that here, it will be known as Feeding Manatee. The organization has served the county for more than 30 years, but the name change is the next step in the organization’s evolution, Mantz said.
“We really feel like planting our flag a bit higher will help us bring more resources and awareness to the county,” he said.
While Mantz loves his job (he said he always tells his team, “We don’t have to do this, we get to do this”) and loves working with like-minded and caring colleagues, donors, volunteers, and partner charities, it doesn’t mean the job isn’t challenging, and at times, heart-wrenching.
“You’re always aware of how far you are from where you want or need to be,” Mantz said. “If you’ve ever served food in a food line, your greatest fear realized is not having enough for the last people in line. It’s the worst feeling in the world. It’s a feeling that makes you want to just curl up and die. All of us are driven by that feeling, whether literally in the moment or metaphorically. I do not want to leave that last person standing there without help or hope.”
First-timers in Food Lines
Since COVID-19 hit and people started losing income, their need for food increased alarmingly. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Feeding Tampa Bay estimated there were 45,000 food insecure people in Manatee County. Food insecurity means lacking reliable access to enough nutritious food and feeling anxious about it. By May, that number had reached 62,000.
Currently, in Manatee County, Feeding Tampa Bay has doubled the customers they had prior to the pandemic.
“It’s stabilized a bit now, but early on in the COVID crisis, we saw some 70 percent of the people that were getting food from us had not been in a food line before,” Mantz said. “One of our challenges was making sure they knew where the heck to go. They didn’t even know how it worked.”
Mantz stressed that while Feeding Tampa Bay is not a political organization, politics seriously impact its work.
“When there’s not another stimulus bill, or Cares Act passed, that affects those we serve,” Mantz said. “When they expire or are not renewed or funded, it places people in greater peril. Every day families are pushed further into the economic hole.”
For example, government acts protecting people from being evicted or aid to help people pay rent can help keep families stable. Without this help, they will need more food. The longer a person struggles, the longer it will take them to climb out of the hole.
“Food insecurity already disproportionately affects the working population,” he said, noting that COVID-19 has made the situation more dire.
If those with means can help by donating time or money to Feeding Tampa Bay, it will go a long way toward alleviating the problem. The organization’s costs – such as food, trucks, and personnel — have doubled since COVID-19. Volunteers are always needed, and it’s safe to volunteer – everyone is gloved and masked, and the pantries are drive-through. Opportunities include packing and sorting non-perishable goods in the warehouse, serving meals, and distributing groceries.
“I think it’s the humanitarian thing to do, but I think it’s also the smart thing to do,” Mantz said. “We would suggest that you really measure the health of a community by those on the bottom, not those on the top.”
How to Help…
To volunteer, email volunteer@feedingtampabay.org, or visit feedingtampabay.org/how-you-can-help.
To donate, visit feedingtampabay.org/donate.
For other ways to help – including donating food, attending fundraisers, and becoming an advocate, visit feedingtampabay.org/how-you-can-help.
For more information, you can call Feeding Tampa Bay at 813-254-1190.
To find out where, when, and how to get food, visit feedingtampabay.org/findfood and search by county.
Food insecurity rate in Manatee using Map the Meal Gap COVID impact: preCOVID 11.9%, COVID impact 17.6%
MEGAS
Two locations have graciously partnered with us to serve the area: State College of Florida & now DeSoto Square Mall.
Total mega pounds (Mar 15-Sept 30) = 888,493 meals
*Special recognition goes to the police departments, Early Learning Coalition, and the Manatee County Government, including their Neighborhood Services Department and Library Department, for helping launch this outreach program into the area.
38 PARTNER AGENCIES in Manatee – Partnerships include retail routes, Agency Empowered Retail Pickup, mobile pantry deliveries, USDA TEFAP, online ordering, and door to door dry and perishable delivery.
*No agencies have been charged any fees for the time since 3/17 – saving hundreds of thousands of dollars on transportation and shared maintenance fees being waived so that agencies can focus on what matters most- staying open to feed their neighbors.
– Mobile pantries drops to agencies
Total distribution: 463,566 meals
TOTAL FOOD DISTRIBUTION
March 15th-Sept 30th, 2019 = 1,535,173 meals
March 15th-Sept 30th, 2020 = 3,971,468 meals
*159% increase from the same time period last year.
