The ministry was started in Plant City at the parish and celebrates its 51st anniversary this year. Spirit FM held a presence at the booth, distributed station swag such as magnets and wristbands to visitors, and provided on-site coverage which aired on the station’s afternoon show, The Way Home. 

"Even though there are lots of shortcake booths, what makes ours unique from everybody else's is that you get to make it yourself!” shared Roxana Chavez, Promotions Director of St. Clement’s project. “You get to choose a cake or biscuit, load it up with as many strawberries as you'd like, and then top it off with non-dairy whipped cream.” 

The project was started by St. Clement’s Men’s Club back in 1973. It received official approval by the Florida Strawberry Festival in early 1974 and opened its first booth at the festival in March of the same year. Each year, the ministry sells around 100,000 shortcakes and goes through a whopping 32,000 pounds of whipped topping and 3,000 flats of strawberries. 

The strawberries themselves are grown by a family from St. Clement Catholic Church’s parish community. These berries are sweetened with around two and a half tons of sugar. Thanks to profits made by the ministry in its early years, the parish was able to relocate from downtown Plant City to its current property, as well as cover the costs of its additional buildings. 

Over 2,000 volunteers are needed to run the booth each year, and the parish welcomes anyone over the age of 18 to volunteer by visiting www.stclementpc.org. Volunteers are given free admission to the Florida Strawberry Festival, as well as shortcake at the booth, making it a sweet deal! 

Tickets to the booth cost $6 or can be purchased in advance at Publix locations for $5.50. This year is the first year that the booth accepts credit or debit cards. When entering the booth, visitors are given their base of a cake or biscuit before being guided to tables where they can pile the toppings as high as their heart desires!