ST. PETE STRONG
Bill Edwards /Meals on Wheels for Kids
“If we can’t put on shows, we should
use it to help people.” Bill Edwards
The lobby of Duke Energy Center for the Arts - Mahaffey Theater
never looked quite like this on a Saturday morning. Tables piled
high with packaged food, groceries and fresh produce, with masked
and gloved volunteers bagging and boxing it all up in assembly line
fashion. That Monday, three Pinellas County school buses pulled up
and the meal boxes were loaded in. As the buses wound through
St. Pete neighborhoods, the food was delivered to pre-assigned
homes for children and families in need of nutritious food.
This will be the scene every weekend throughout summer
at Mahaffey Theater, as they join a number of other locations
in Pinellas County to become a weekly meal packaging and
distribution site for Meals on Wheels for
Kids. The new campaign was developed
to End Hunger in response to COVID-19
school closures. Families with children and
without transportation are the targeted
recipients; they receive a week’s worth of
food items. The program serves about 550
children or 25,000 meals per week.
St. Pete businessman Bill Edwards, who
manages the city-owned Mahaffey Theater,
is known for his generosity when it comes
to helping St. Petersburg kids. In April, The
Edwards Family Foundation presented a
contribution of $100,000 to help Meals on
St Pete Strong
26 StPeteLifeMag.com May/June 2020
Wheels for Kids pay for food.
“We are proud to partner with the Network to End Hunger on
COVID response in our community,” said Edwards via a press
release. “If we can’t put on shows, we should use it to help people.
No child should feel uncertain as to when their next meal may
come. Meals On Wheels for Kids is doing an outstanding job
combating that issue, but they cannot do so without the help of
others.”
“Bill wanted all of his community organizations to be involved, and
we happily agreed to both provide manpower and our venue to
said Amy Miller, who helms the Mahaffey
staging site as president of Bill Edwards
Foundation for the Arts.
Meal packing events take place each
week at the following sites: Tuesdays-
Clearview UMC (4515 38th Ave. N.,
St. Petersburg); Saturdays-Catherine
Hickman Theater (5501 27th Ave.
S., Gulfport); Daystar Life Center
(1055 28th St. S., St. Petersburg) and
Duke Energy Center for the Arts/
Mahaffey Theater (400 1st St. S., St.
Petersburg). Volunteers should visit
networktoendhunger.org/volunteer to
complete an application form.
Thank You
St. Pete.
/StPeteLifeMag.com
/volunteer