Tampa’s Trinity Cafe Closes Busch Boulevard Location, Leaving Vulnerable Residents in Need

TAMPA — A little over a year ago, Trinity Cafe’s Busch Boulevard location set an unfortunate yet necessary record by serving nearly 400 free hot meals in one day to people in need. On Friday, the location that opened in 2016 provided its final sit-down meal service. Drive-thru to-go service ends Sept. 20. Trinity Cafe’s parent nonprofit Feeding Tampa Bay decided recently to shutter the hot meal service at the location inside the First Church of God, 2202 E.

Busch Blvd. They say it’s due to dwindling numbers and a shift to the drive-thru by regulars. After Sept. 20, the nonprofit will no longer have a presence there. The downtown Tampa and St.

Petersburg Trinity Cafes will remain open. Former employees and volunteers said the decision was unfortunate. “It breaks my heart that the neighborhood is losing the resource,” said Vicky Kane, who has volunteered there for the past six years. For those who relied on the Busch Boulevard location’s mission of providing free hot meals to anyone who asked, Feeding Tampa Bay has compiled a list of six nearby hot meal site alternatives plus five food pantries, all of whom the nonprofit describes as partner providers. Volunteers worry how their regulars without cars will get to the other locations, which are between 1.

5 and 5 miles away. “They are expected to walk or bike in this heat and rain? ” Kane said. Cindy Campbell Davis, who worked for Trinity Cafe from 2009-2021 as program director and then assistant director and continued to volunteer there until recently, is concerned about the alternatives’ nondaily service compared to the Busch Boulevard Trinity Cafe that offered free daily lunch to the surrounding impoverished neighborhoods. “One place serves a meal on one day, another on another,” she said.

“These folks need one place with everyday service. ” For people without kitchens, it can be difficult to turn food pantry donations into hot meals. “Some live along Busch Boulevard in low budget hotels. ... They don’t have a way to cook,” Kane said.

Former volunteers and employees also said they were shocked to hear that low numbers were the cause of the location’s closure. “Were they down from the day we broke the record? Yes,” said Jeremy Gloff, who worked there from 2016 until May and then infrequently volunteered. But recently “it was usually between 225-300 a day depending on the time of month.