Andrea Reece-Kitchen is the Assistant Director of Marketing at Feeding Tampa Bay, a non-profit organization that’s part of the Feeding America network. Empowered by the words, Because Food Makes Tomorrow Possible and a goal of a hunger-free Tampa Bay by 2025, Feeding Tampa Bay is one of the top hunger-relief organizations in the nation and is committed to ending hunger by fueling human potential in every family, child, and senior across its 10-county region. 

Andrea has been with the organization for more than two years, and in that time, she’s continued to put her analytical and creative skills to use to achieve the best outcomes and leave an imprint on her communities. And, as the pandemic intensified the need for food and support, Andrea has stepped up to the challenge to build awareness for the organization and encourage involvement from community members through creative marketing campaigns and other initiatives.  

In this Q&A, we learn more about her approach to marketing, the most fulfilling aspect of her job, and more. 

Enjoy!

Has the pandemic changed your approach to marketing? If so, how?   

Almost overnight, demand grew during the pandemic from 600,000 to nearly 2 million people facing food insecurity across our 10-county region. While COVID-19 surged the need for food and stability in our community grew and we quickly recognized the necessity to leverage creativity and innovation to broaden our marketing reach. We did this through evolving direct strategies to strengthen and position our brand and market leadership for crisis, to deepen engagement from our supporter base, and to strengthen client-based messaging to increase knowledge of accessibility. By stretching our brand messaging and defining target audiences, particularly through digital platforms, we were able to effectively increase support, broaden awareness, multiply our overall response, and position ourselves as a thought-leader in the area of food security across our region.  

How has social media helped generate awareness for Feeding Tampa Bay?

Social media branding has been an incredible tool to increase awareness and advocacy for our mission. As opposed to traditional methods of brand building, social media’s cost-effective nature, direct content engagement and lead generation abilities help us to increase our ROI in exponential ways. In particular, we found that by empowering those in our network to use their voice on social media, we can increase overall grassroots involvement, putting the power of voice back into the hands of those who we serve, as well as those who serve alongside us. 

What’s the most fulfilling aspect of your job?

The most fulfilling aspect of my job is knowing that every single part of what we do contributes to a child being fed tonight, a family having groceries for their week, or an individual receiving services that will help them towards long-term sustainability. We imagine a hunger-free Tampa Bay and are willing to try everything possible in order to reach that goal. I end even the longest of days knowing that someone’s future will be impacted by the work we’ve done, and there’s nothing more fulfilling or rewarding than that.

What’s been your favorite, most memorable marketing campaign/initiative at Feeding Tampa Bay so far? 

My favorite marketing campaign during my time at Feeding Tampa Bay has been our We Stand Together campaign that launched during the Fall of 2020. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, this campaign worked to rally our community around one common message – that we are unstoppable when we stand together.

By using compelling data and imagery-based storytelling, we communicated that every day and in times of crisis, Feeding Tampa Bay stands for our community’s health and well-being. Our COVID-19 response efforts showed us, and the entire region, that we can rally in the face of extraordinary challenges — that the kind and fortunate will share the burden. Because we stand together.