BRANDON, Fla. — Martha Diaz’s tears of worry have transformed into tears of joy.
Her beloved food pantry in Valrico, the Three B’s Ministry, has a new home thanks to the generosity of an ABC Action News viewer.
“I cannot express how thankful and humbled at the same time, I feel,” an emotional Diaz said Thursday. “My heart is full.”
One month ago, Diaz started to lose faith. She was worried about losing what she considers a mission from God, her food pantry, which serves 150 families weekly.
Born in the Dominican Republic, Diaz grew up in Puerto Rico. She moved to Florida with her 5-year-old daughter in 2010.
She couldn't find a job at first, despite her advanced degrees. She ultimately became homeless and sheltered in cheap motels and her beater SUV.
“It was very hard,” she said in a previous interview.
When Diaz’s life stabilized, she became the help she wished she had when she moved to Florida.
What started as a meal train for a sick friend during the COVID-19 pandemic transformed into feeding the homeless regularly and then starting a food pantry out of her garage.
She founded her nonprofit and moved her pantry to a church in Valrico, where it has served dozens of families weekly ever since.
However, the church that currently houses the pantry is redeveloping, and Diaz had until June 1 to find a new space. If she couldn’t, she would have been forced to suspend her pantry’s operations.
Luckily, Diaz’s tearful interview on ABC Action News caught the attention of Chirag Amin and his business partner.
Amin’s new nonprofit, Help Us Help You, aims to help provide homeless persons with vital medications. Amin decided to partner with Diaz and share a space on Lithia Pinecrest Road in Brandon.
“Whatever she needs is going to be done, like, within a week,” Amin said. “It’s a blessing. It’s very hard to find a partnership like this.”
Now, Diaz, the Three B’s Ministry, and the nonprofit’s dedicated volunteers have a bigger and better space that will allow them to feed and serve more people.
“What I want to say out there to everybody is you don’t need to dream big. You just need to dream,” Diaz said.
Though the pantry’s new building is dark and empty now, soon it will be glowing with love.
“God came through,” Diaz said with a smile. “Always on time.”
If you would like to volunteer with Three B’s Ministry, contact Martha Diaz at 813-624-1119.
A state report says hundreds of frail elderly nursing home residents were stacked side by side, head to toe in a small church with no working air conditioning or refrigerator during Hurricane Helene.
