On Saturday, St. Mary’s Community Church joined with the City of Plant City and the Hillsborough County EOC as a distribution site for food boxes to those affected by Hurricane Irma. On Friday, Earl Knighten from St. Mary’s and C.L. Townsend (PCA Democratic Party) transported 500 food boxes from the Hillsborough County EOC facility on 
Columbus Drive in Tampa to St. Mary’s for distribution. Saturday, members of St. Ma
ry’s Community Church passed out the food boxes to people from the surrounding community as well as providing the food boxes to Minister Edith Langston from the Gospel Mets Ministry for further distribution.
St. Mary’s Community Church was also used as a shelter during the hurricane
. Several members of the congregation seeking shelter from the storm spent Sunday night at the church and passed the time by watching movies and dining on a couple of Rev. Timothy Knighten’s favorites dishes, fried soft shell crabs and shrimps. Even though the surrounding area was flooded, the members remained high and dry.