Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, Tampa Family Health Centers, DTCC, and Feeding Tampa Bay win 2020 Community Impact Awards
TAMPA – Tampa !p (Innovation Partnership) and the University Area Community Development Corporation (UACDC) honored four organizations with Community Impact Awards for their community work at an on-line edition of Tampa !p’s sixth Annual Innovation Gathering. The awards are a collaborative effort between Tampa !p and the University Area CDC intended to recognize organizations that have shown exemplary leadership in building a cohesive community in the Uptown area.
The four awards are the Creative Cooperation Award, Community Catalyst Award, Corporate Changemaker Award, and a special award added this year due to the extraordinary circumstances of 2020, called the Uptown Resiliency Award. The award presentations were made in a pre-recorded ceremony at Crossover Church where lead pastor Tommy Kyllonen presented the awards on behalf of the Tampa !p Community Engagement Committee.
The winner of the Creative Cooperation Award is Tampa Family Health. Winners of this award excel in all aspects of partnership: consistent communication, knowledge of programs and services, and participate in community committees and events. Tampa Family Health was nominated by Ed Johnson of the East Tampa Community Redevelopment Area for their creative efforts in partnering with community-based organizations and industry-leading experts to eliminate gaps in health care and provide critical wrap-around service to underserved communities.
The winner of the Community Catalyst Award is Fuzzy’s Taco Shop for its One Taco at a Time program. At the onset of the COVID crisis that impacted the restaurant industry severely, Fuzzy’s looked for a way to keep their workers employed while supporting the front-line workers in our hospitals and other essential places. They raised over $40,000 and partnered with organizations like My Warriors Place and Fueling the Front Lines, and this innovative, win-win initiative helped avoid laying off workers and helped the morale of our heroes on the front-lines in the battle against COVID-19 by delivering fresh tacos to them.
The third Community Impact Award is the Corporate Changemaker Award, which has a focus on the business sector and those who demonstrate exceptional collaboration for the benefit of the community. The 2020 winner of this award is the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC). DTCC was nominated by Feeding Tampa Bay for whom they have been a consistent source of volunteer support. This year, when many organizations with community service initiatives were forced to scale back due to COVID-19 precautions, DTCC stepped up and has helped distribute food to more than 3,500 families a week at Mega Pantries throughout Tampa Bay.
The winner of the Uptown Resiliency Award, created due to the extraordinary challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, is Feeding Tampa Bay. The effects of the pandemic were felt especially in Uptown where more residents are already struggling to access nutritious fresh food for meals and Feeding Tampa Bay has been an essential life-line. Between March 1st and August 31st they distributed more than 1.3 million meals in the Uptown area.
Tampa !p is a partnership dedicated to innovation in the area bounded by Interstate 275, Interstate 75, Bearss Avenue, and Busch Boulevard. The organization has 232 members including anchor institutions: University of South Florida, AdventHealth, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, Busch Gardens, James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital, RD Management, LLC, owner of University Mall, and the University Area CDC.
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!p is the Tampa Innovation Partnership which works collaboratively with people and businesses to unleash potential and create a thriving, magnetic district in the area known as Uptown Tampa, bounded by Busch Boulevard, Bearss Avenue, Interstate 75, and Interstate 275
