Metropolitan Ministries and GODIVA Partner to Share the Love with Families in Need This Holiday Season
Iconic GODIVA Pink Truck brings holiday cheer to the tent on December 15
December 12, 2024, TAMPA, FL – This holiday season, Metropolitan Ministries and GODIVA are partnering to Share Hope and bring holiday cheer to families in need across the Tampa Bay region as the community continues hurricane recovery. The Metropolitan Ministries’ Holiday Tent will assist as many as 34,000 at-risk families in the Tampa Bay region this festive period by providing food and toys to help uplift their holiday season. This year, GODIVA will be joining these efforts on-site and will be giving out flights of their chocolate truffles to volunteers and families in need. GODIVA is also supporting Metropolitan Ministries with a $25,000 donation to further the organization’s critical work to help build strong, caring communities, especially in the wake of the recent hurricanes.
“Thousands of families turn to us for hope during the holidays, and something as simple as sharing a piece of chocolate can bring a moment of joy,” said Tim Marks, President and CEO of Metropolitan Ministries. “We are grateful to GODIVA for helping us go beyond meeting basic needs, for adding a little magic to the holidays for the families we serve and for helping to support our ongoing work with a generous donation.”
The collaboration highlights GODIVA’s history of spreading joy to the community in difficult times. The iconic brand will bring the Pink Truck to the Holiday Tent to add a sweet treat for families and volunteers visiting on December 15. The truck first rolled through the streets of Belgium in the 1940’s to lift the spirits of a devastated post-War community. Now, this tradition continues with Metropolitan Ministries and its family-focused initiative.
“Our iconic Pink Truck has been bringing the joy of GODIVA chocolate to communities for generations,” said GODIVA President Steve Lesnard. “This week, as we proudly partner with Metropolitan Ministries, that same spirit of connection and love continues to help bring a smile to the people of Tampa during an incredibly difficult time.”
Metropolitan Ministries, a 52-year-old nonprofit, serves over 90,000 individuals and 157,000 children annually through comprehensive services including hunger relief, emergency shelter, and family support. So far this holiday season, Metropolitan Ministries has already distributed more than 16,000 food boxes and 16,000 turkeys or hams through its Holiday Tents and pop-up locations, equating to 600,000 individual meals. The need remains great, and help is still needed as Metropolitan Ministries prepares to serve an additional 17,000 families and 30,000 children for Christmas starting this week. Followers can track the GODIVA pink truck’s journey on Instagram @godiva and learn more about this heartwarming initiative.
About Metropolitan Ministries and the Holiday Tent Initiative
As a local, independent nonprofit founded 52 years ago in Tampa Heights, Metropolitan Ministries provides year-round services that alleviate suffering, promote dignity, and instill self-sufficiency for at-risk and homeless families in Tampa Bay. The organization’s flagship initiative is a beacon of hope known as the Holiday Tent with the goal of aiding individuals, families, children, and seniors in need with food and toys for Thanksgiving and Christmas. This year, with the help of community donations and 35 collaborative partners, Metro expects to serve 34,000 families and provide 60,000 toys for children. Visit www.metromin.org/holiday-central for more details.
About pladis
pladis is one of the world’s fastest growing snacking companies and its portfolio includes much loved brands including McVitie’s, GODIVA and Ülker. pladis also owns regional brands Jacob’s, Go Ahead, Flipz, Turtles, BN, Verkade and many more products across sweet and savoury biscuits, wafer, cake, and chocolate.
Formed in 2016, pladis is the proud steward of over 300 years of family baking and confectionery experience. The expertise of its 16,000-strong global workforce spans 27 bakeries across 11 countries and is founded on collaboration, agility and resilience. As a responsible business, delivering the highest quality products and exceptional service, pladis’ products have the potential to reach more than four billion people across the world.
As a global leader in premium chocolate, GODIVA was founded in Brussels in 1926 by master Belgian chocolatier, Pierre Draps. It has an established global footprint across more than 100 markets where customers can expect to find GODIVA products in many fine retailers, online, and, depending on the market, at brick-and-mortar locations like boutiques and cafes.
GODIVA Company was acquired in 2008 by Yıldız Holding of Türkiye. pladis and the GODIVA Company are wholly owned subsidiaries of Yildiz Uluslararasi Gida Yatirimlari AS.