3 New Traditions You Can Start This Holiday Season

When I think of the holidays, I think of homemade stuffing.

My grandmother, aunt, and I used to make it every year for holiday dinners. It was a staple at every family gathering through the end of the year — and as much as I fondly remember indulging in its deliciousness, it was the moments in the kitchen, meticulously tearing the bread into cubes and properly seasoning the celery with my childhood heroes that I’ll cherish forever.

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In our richly diverse city, there is no shortage of opportunities for memorable holiday traditions. Yet, for nearly 1 million people in our region, the holidays signal a time of increased financial, social, and mental strain. With food costs at their highest rates in years, along with rising prices on gas and housing, families across the Tampa Bay region are experiencing hardship like never before.

You can help alleviate the strain for these families and ensure they have meals on their tables this holiday season. Here are three easy ways you can stand with your community, all while introducing new, rewarding family traditions!

Stand With Your Community

One of the most valuable gifts is time. When you volunteer as a family, you do more than help provide nutritious meals to the families, children, and seniors in our area — you build the foundation for a legacy of service with your children. Stand with your community and make an impact through volunteering.

Host a Virtual Food Drive

You can make a positive impact right from your own home through our annual 12 Days of Giving virtual food drive! Whether you make a direct donation to provide nutritious meals or rally your friends and families for a virtual team fundraiser, you can stake a stand for our neighbors and share a little extra joy this holiday season.

Shop to Give

The best gifts are the ones that keep giving. Consider shopping with a purpose this holiday through our “shop to give” efforts, like our Feeding Tampa Bay merch store. Also, when you make a donation through our Stake Your Stand* webpage, you will help provide meals and receive a flag to proudly show how you stand for ending hunger.

We live in a community of champions, and we’ve shown that Tampa Bay and beyond is stronger than ever before in the face of hunger. Show how you stand with our community and build a legacy this holiday. Visit feedingtampabay.org.

*Valid through December 31, 2021

About the Author: Andrea Kitchen serves as Assistant Director of Marketing for Feeding Tampa Bay. By using elevated brand strategies to enhance inspired participation, Andrea is an accomplished marketer, designer, strategist, and speaker with more than 10 years of experience in community-based nonprofits. Her passion for intergenerational philanthropy and creative communication fuels her work and intensifies her mission. Andrea and her husband, Mark, are the proud parents of two rowdy, amazing boys, Aiden and Gavin, and their family resides in the beautiful Wesley Chapel area. #BoyMomStatus

*Presented by Feeding Tampa Bay