One Week Left to Donate Meals

Thanksgiving is only one week away, and no one has donated any money to buy Boxes of Hope. Please consider helping them out. A.M. Tampabay interviewed the pastor in charge of the ministries at Metropolitan Ministries this morning. He said that during Thanksgiving and Christmas, they help out 1,400 families.

For many of the years I have lived in Tampa, I have helped Metropolitan Ministries around Thanksgiving and Christmas with either the soup kitchen for serving a meal or in the drop-off tent sorting donations. This year, due to health reasons, I’m unable to give of myself as I usually do. After seeing what Darren Rowse did in Australia with his blog, Problogger.net, by raising enough money to donate 110 pairs of chickens to the poor, I decided that I could do far more good for the community by pooling all the resources of my readers to help out the families this year.

Following the same spirit as Darren, I will be donating Boxes of Hope to the needy. My goal is 100 boxes for 100 families in the Greater Tampa Bay area. A box costs $35, but donations of any amount will collect and add up to purchase boxes.

Please give whatever you can, even $1.00, no amount is too small when we add them up together.

Each box contains the following:

• 1 gift certificate for a turkey
• 1 loaf of bread (fresh)
• 1 box of cereal (hot or cold)
• 1 package of cookies or pastries
• 1 can of cranberry sauce
• 1 box of dessert mix
• 1 bag or box of dry beans
• 1 can of fruit
• 1 can or packet of gravy
• 1 family box of Jell-O or pudding
• 4 cans of vegetables
• 1 can or box of potatoes
• 1 bag or box of rice
• 1 bag or box of stuffing mix
• 2 cans of black beans
• 2 cans of yams

There are 3 ways to join the effort:

1. Make a donation at GivethePerfectGift.com
2. Mail your donation to:

Metropolitan Ministries
2002 North Florida Avenue
Tampa, Florida 33602-2204

3. I will be tracking all donations to my PayPal account and making a bulk donation on November 20th, 2006 with whatever funds have been sent in. Make a donation using this button.

Just some proof that no one has sent any funds in to my PayPal account. Don’t worry, I won’t post names or information of donations that come in after this.