Category: News

East Texas Food Bank breaks ground on new Tyler Resource Center and Fresh Produce Processing Center

  • ETFB CEO Dennis Cullinane shows plans and drawings for the new Tyler Food Pantry and Produce Distribution Center.

Tyler, TX-The East Texas Food Bank held a groundbreaking today on a new Tyler Resource Center and Fresh Produce Processing Center as part of the overall strategic plan aimed at expanding programs, distributing more food and serving more people.

“We are excited today to move forward with our plans to build a new food pantry in Tyler at our distribution center,” said Dennis Cullinane, CEO of the East Texas Food Bank. “The 2,500 square foot Tyler Resource Center will be located in close proximity to low-income neighborhoods, in a census tract where 34% of the population lives below the poverty line. This is the first time in our history to operate a food pantry onsite at our facility to help close the hunger gap.”

The Tyler Resource Center will include a “Healthy Food Pantry” to provide nutritious food through a client-choice distribution model. The center will be open several days a week including some evenings and weekends to increase access to food assistance. The Benefits Assistance Program will help clients apply for SNAP and other social service benefits.

“We currently estimate that ETFB will serve 500 Smith County households each week and provide 756,000 meals annually with our new Tyler Resource Center,” added Cullinane.

Fresh Produce Processing Center

The construction of a 9,000 square foot Fresh Produce Processing Center will allow the ETFB to collect, store, repackage and distribute fresh fruits and vegetables more efficiently in the 26 county region served by the ETFB.

“Our goal is to sustain our fresh produce distribution at 14 million pounds or 50% of ETFB’s total food distribution by 2025,” said Cullinane. “We distribute boxes of produce each month at multiple locations in East Texas through our Mobile Pantries. Fresh fruits and vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet yet many of our clients are unable to buy produce because of the expense.”

The Tyler Resource Center and Fresh Produce Processing Center, along with other infrastructure such as a new road for delivery trucks, represents a $7 million investment. Funding for these initiatives came from several generous grants including from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott and the American Rescue Plan Act. The new facilities are anticipated to be completed in the summer of 2023.

November Media

Here’s a look at some stories about the East Texas Food Bank during the month of November 2021:

Hunger Hero Awards announced for second year

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    Hunger Hero Award Recipient Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler

To recognize the continued outpouring of support from the community during the East Texas Food Bank’s ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ETFB honored four recipients with the 2nd annual Hunger Hero Awards.

Hunger Hero Awards were given to Green Acres Baptist Church (Community Partner Organization), Mr. & Mrs. Herb and Melvina Buie (Individual Supporter), John Soules Foods, Inc. (Corporate Partner) and the Louis & Peaches Owen Family Foundation (Foundation Partner).

“We are excited and honored to present this year’s Hunger Hero Awards to recipients who have shown a great amount of support, especially in the past year as we’ve continued to distribute record amounts of food,” said Dennis Cullinane, CEO of the East Texas Food Bank. “They really exemplify the kindness and generosity of our community and the commitment needed in the fight against hunger.”

The awards were given during Feeding America’s Hunger Action Month. The awareness month, held each September, works to inspire community to take action and bring attention to the reality of hunger in East Texas and across the nation.

“One thing that motivates me is that we want to help 26 counties, 200 agencies reach over 30 million pounds of food to the hungry in our East Texas area,” said Herb Buie. “I want to see that happen with the great performance of the East Texas Food Bank.”

Hunger impacts people in every corner of the country, including 239,800 people, 85,450 of which are children, right here in East Texas. This amounts to 1 in 5 East Texans, including 1 in 4 children.

“We feel it is important to give back to the community that has given so much to us,” said John Soules Jr., Co-CEO of John Soules Foods, Inc. “We are honored to be awarded in this way and continue to pledge our support to the East Texas Food Bank for years to come.”

“Hunger continues to be a crisis in East Texas. While the fight against hunger is ongoing- together, we can feed hope for our neighbors in need,” Cullinane said.

USDA will increase SNAP benefits due to Thrifty Food Plan review

The US Department of Agriculture announced on Monday an increase to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits due to a review of the Thifty Food Plan, mandated by a bipartisan farm bill that was passed in 2018. Monthly benefits in Texas will rise approximately 27% starting in October.

“It is a big day, especially for those 42 million Americans who rely on SNAP for supplemental assistance to feed themselves and their families,” said Tom Vilsack, United States Secretary of Agriculture.

The Thrifty Food Plan, a baseline diet used to calculate benefit levels, had not been updated since 1975 and so failed to capture shifts in food costs and consumers’ circumstances. The update is also expected to increase the amount of USDA commodities available to food banks.

“This is long overdue and sorely needed relief for families who are stretching to put enough food on the table;” said Celia Cole, CEO of Feeding Texas. “Everyone knows the cost of living is very different than it was in 1975. These adjustments, which are based on years of scientific research, will have an important impact for the families we serve.”

The increase will amount to an additional 1.5 billion in benefits to SNAP-enrolled families in Texas. That is an average monthly increase of $36 per person, equivalent to $1.20 per day or 40 cents per meal.

“Our food banks have been struggling to meet increased food needs in their communities,” said Cole. “We know SNAP can reach many more people and offer food assistance on a much larger scale than we can. This change will re-balance the program in favor of healthier diets and reduced hunger in Texas.”

For more about the update to SNAP benefits, click here.

The East Texas Food Bank has a Benefits Assistance Program that helps East Texans complete applications for social service benefits, such as SNAP. To learn more about the program and request in-person or virtual assistance, click here.

Feeding Neighbors, Building Community: East Texas Food Bank Announces New Strategic Plan

The East Texas Food Bank, East Texas’s largest hunger-relief organization, announces a strategic plan for $11.8 million in investments across its 26-county service area. The plan will work to ensure that the one in five East Texans who are facing hunger have access to the nutritious food they need.

“The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a heightened awareness of hunger in East Texas. We’ve all seen the long lines of cars waiting for hours to receive a free box of groceries. Thankfully, it has also brought out resiliency in our hunger-relief network and unprecedented generosity from our community,” said East Texas Food Bank CEO Dennis Cullinane. “With a renewed sense of understanding and empathy towards hunger in East Texas, now is the time to build upon the momentum and strategically grow our programs to meet the need.”

The announcement comes as East Texas is battling an unprecedented hunger crisis. Texas has the seventh highest food insecurity rate in the nation. Locally, one in five East Texans, including one in four children, are facing hunger. That’s approximately 239,800 East Texans, including 85,450 children.

“Unfortunately, the pandemic hit our most vulnerable neighbors the hardest. Seniors couldn’t safely go to the grocery store. Hard-working parents had to switch to at-home learning and lost the free and reduced meal programs through school. College students lost their jobs when restaurants shut down. We heard so many stories like these from people who had never needed food assistance before the pandemic,” Cullinane said. “Even though our state reopened and the economy is on the path to recovery, we are still seeing an increased need for food assistance. Our response continues to be a marathon, not a sprint.”

To meet the need, the East Texas Food Bank, in collaboration with its network of partner agencies, community leaders and generous donors, will work to ensure people struggling with hunger have access to the nutritious food they need to thrive. In order to do this, the East Texas Food Bank seeks to distribute 32 million meals a year throughout East Texas by 2025.

The East Texas Food Bank will accomplish this ambitious goal through six key strategic initiatives in its highest-need communities:

  1. Major Partner Agency Investment– ETFB will invest in strategic partner food pantries to expand their capacity to provide traditional meal distribution as a primary way to increase local food resources and increase their SNAP outreach and applications.
  2. Resource Centers– ETFB will bring the resource center model started in North Lufkin to other high-need communities. The resource centers will include a client-choice, healthy pantry and other wrap-around support services to provide a one-stop-shop of support for families.
  3. Targeted Direct and Mobile Pantry Distributions– ETFB will continue direct, targeted distributions it started during the pandemic to reach low-income, under-resourced neighborhoods with fresh produce.
  4. Fresh Produce and Purchasing Program– There is a high need for fresh produce, which is crucial for a healthy diet. ETFB will continue scaling its fresh produce and purchased food program to increase the availability and variety of items to its partner agencies.
  5. State and National Advocacy– ETFB will work in partnership with Feeding Texas and Feeding America to secure high-priority public policy, legislation and resources to support the collective, long-term goals to end hunger.
  6. Infrastructure- Key investments will include building out the East Texas Food Bank facilities and fleet and adding the staffing needed to meet this ambitious goal.

The revised strategic plan was made possible in part by a $9 million donation by renowned philanthropist Mackenzie Scott. In late 2020, Scott’s team anonymously researched 6,490 organizations and ultimately chose to invest in only 384. Of the 200 food banks across the U.S., ETFB was one of 42 selected.

In the Medium post, Scott said her team of advisors took a data-driven approach to identifying organizations with strong leadership teams and results, with special attention to those operating in communities facing high projected food insecurity, high local poverty rates and low access to philanthropic capital.

Scott noted, “We do this research and deeper diligence not only to identify organizations with high potential impact, but also to pave the way for unsolicited and unexpected gifts given with full trust and no strings attached. Our research is data-driven and rigorous, our giving process can be human and soft.”

“This generous investment in the East Texas Food Bank is a vote of confidence in the work we are all doing together to end hunger in East Texas,” Cullinane said. “Every partner agency, volunteer, donor, staff member, board member and stakeholder should feel proud to receive this recognition and investment.”

However, Cullinane added that the hunger crisis in East Texas is bigger than what any one philanthropist can solve. It will take individuals, corporations, foundations and our local organizations working together to end hunger.

“Ending hunger and its devastating effects in East Texas is within our reach when we all come together to fight hunger. With these investments and continued generosity of all East Texans, we can end hunger together,” Cullinane said.

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