Category: News

September is Hunger Action Month

Food insecurity is a reality for 1 in 4 East Texans, including 1 in 3 children today.  To help fight hunger, the East Texas Food Bank is participating in Feeding America’s nationwide Hunger Action Month campaign during the month of September. Hunger Action Month is designed to mobilize the public to take action on the issue of hunger. Everyone can be a hunger hero and no action is too small!

Be a Hunger Hero

Donate

For every $1 that is donated to the East Texas Food Bank, we can provide up to 8 meals for children, families and seniors that struggle with hunger. Make a gift now and consider setting up a monthly donation to help us fight hunger all year!

Host a Virtual Food Drive

Any person, business or organization can host a virtual food drive with their own unique page to raise funds for the East Texas Food Bank. Virtual food drives raise dollars instead of cans, which helps the East Texas Food Bank provide even more food for the families we serve. Sign up to host a Virtual Food Drive.

Volunteer

The East Texas Food Bank relies on volunteers to help us fulfill our mission. We welcome all volunteers over the age of 8, and have a variety of volunteer opportunities available for individuals, families and groups! Find out more about volunteering.

Connect and share on social media

You can use the power of your social network to help us reach even more people and inform them of the work we do every day to help end hunger in East Texas. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Sign up for our emails

Keep up with the latest news and updates from the East Texas Food Bank by signing up for emails.

Hunger is a crisis in East Texas that will take the whole communities’ support to fight. While the fight against hunger is ongoing- together, we can feed hope for our neighbors in need!

Three ways we are feeding children during the new school year

School Child with Meal

Schools in East Texas are looking a lot different for students and parents in East Texas due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Difficult decisions are being made about whether to send children to school or keep them at home, learning from a distance. And, of course, we all have questions about what the future holds.

In East Texas today, 1 in 3 children are facing hunger. This includes children who depend on free or reduced meals they would normally be receiving in school. This puts even more pressure on the parents of these children as they question “who is going to feed them during the upcoming months?”

The good news is that the East Texas Food Bank, our partner agencies and Feeding America are working hard preparing to ensure children have the food they need as they return to school, whether that be on campus or virtually.

Here is how we are helping this school year:

  1. BackPack Program – The East Texas Food Bank partners with school throughout our 26 county service area to provide food for children who are at risk of going hungry on weekends and holidays. Our plan is to support 148 school sites with food that children that are enrolled in the BackPack Program can take home for the weekend. We anticipate serving 6,600 children this year. Click here to read more about this program.
  2. Kids Café & Afterschool Snack Program – This program provides free meals and snacks to low-income children through a variety of existing community locations where children gather such as Boys & Girls Clubs, churches or public schools. Our plan is to support 23 sites with snacks and meals for children. Click here to read more about this program.
  3. Curbside Distributions – When schools closed earlier this year, the East Texas Food Bank was able to partner with school campuses to distribute nutritious food to families as they picked up school work and campus meals. Should schools close again, we will be able to help in this capacity once more.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, we are continuing to help the children, families and seniors who desperately need our help during this crisis. But we can’t do it without our gratuitous donors and volunteers. You can help support our mission of “fighting hunger and feeding hope” by giving a gift today to the East Texas Food Bank or finding out how to volunteer with us.

Summer Food Program wraps up 16th year of serving meals

The East Texas Food Bank Summer Food Program has wrapped up for the year! The program started in 2005 and serves children under 18 when they no longer have access to free and reduced meal programs at school.

Because of COVID-19, our sites had to change to drive-thru pickup and allow children to take their meals home to eat so ensure social distancing and the safety of staff and families. Despite the temporary changes this year, over 22,600 breakfasts and lunches were distributed at 25 sites throughout East Texas.

“I think we fed more kids this year (with the changes),” said Ellann Johnson Executive Director at HOPE Jacksonville. HOPE Jacksonville is an East Texas Food Bank partner agency. “Parents were relieved they didn’t have to pack up the kids and expose them to any germs or COVID-19.”

This was the first year HOPE Jacksonville had a summer feeding site at their organization, but Johnson said it wasn’t the first time they’ve helped with the program. “We supported the volunteers at Sweet Union Apartments here in Jacksonville in previous years.” she said.

Johnson said kids liked all the meals, but an old standard really stood out. “Just the regular ham and cheese sandwich is their favorite,” she said. Johnson also added that the kids enjoyed the vegetable fruit juices that were available this year.

In addition to providing the summer food meals, HOPE Jacksonville also utilized their kitchen on-site to provide an additional meal to children.

“Kids took away a hot meal and the summer food meal,” Johnson said. “I think that was a big bonus.”

The East Texas Food Bank will continue to serve the over 105,000 children who are facing hunger today in our service area. For more information about our other Child Hunger Programs, click here.

Thank you to all our donors and partner agencies who made this program possible and for providing nutritious children for East Texas children facing hunger!

Summer Food Program continues to serve meals despite COVID-19

Did you know that 1 in 3 East Texas children are facing hunger this summer?

The East Texas Food Bank’s Summer Food Program is underway at 21 sites throughout our East Texas service area to help feed those hungry children.

The program serves children under 18 during the time when they no longer have access to free and reduced meals and snacks that they receive during the school year. Since these programs end when school does, the Summer Food Service Program helps fill the hunger gap ensuring that children continue to receive nutritious meals during the summer.

Normally, children can enjoy their meals from the program at places like schools, parks and other recreational facilities with their friends. This year, however, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed that.

Instead of children staying at the site to eat as in years past, they can pick up their meals and return to home.

“There definitely is an impact this year,” said Lexi Tremble, Summer Food Site Supervisor for Andrew’s Park in Tyler. “It’s an interesting time for families because usually they come and we have activities and get to engage with the kids. We can’t have the full extent of our program, but we are still feeding them and they are grateful for that.”

Another change for this year is that children pick up both a lunch for that day and a breakfast for the next morning. On the day we visited Andrews Park, over 30 meals were distributed.

“The parents and the kids love they are getting both meals at the same time,” Tremble said adding that St. Paul’s Children Foundation also participates in a summer backpack program that provides extra meals over the weekend on Fridays.

“We’ve received so many positive remarks from parents about how important and necessary that is for their kids,” she said.

Parents like Rita, whose 2 year-old, energetic son Romeo was playing at the park on a hot, summer day, said the meals will be helpful.

“It’s convenient,” Rita said adding that it was her first time to visit the site. “I drove by, saw the sign and he saw kids playing and got excited.”

Rita said she was sure she and Romeo would be back to participate again in the program on their park visit.

Tremble shared that despite the challenges faced this year, the East Texas Food Bank has done a great job.

“We are so grateful to the food bank,” she said. “Just me being able to see the kids come, get excited about meals, getting to interact with them and talk about how important this meal is for them. Thank you for allowing us at St. Paul’s to provide those meals.”

For more information about the Summer Food Program and locations near you, visit EastTexasFoodBank.org/SummerFood.

If you would like to financially support our work and help provide for the 1 in 3 East Texans children facing hunger, please give at EastTexasFoodBank.org/DonateNow.

East Texas Food Bank, T.L.L. Temple Foundation address food insecurity in deep East Texas

The T.L.L. Temple Foundation has awarded the East Texas Food Bank a 1.89 million dollar grant to launch the Deep East Texas Food Security Initiative on July 1. Over the next several years, the initiative will address four key focus areas:

  1. Partner Agency Development and Capacity Building
  2. Increased Fresh Produce Distribution
  3. Social Benefits Application Assistance
  4. Development of Deep East Texas Resource Center (including purchasing 105 Lofton St., Lufkin, TX.)

The East Texas Food Bank exists to fight hunger and feed hope in East Texas.  ETFB distributes food to a network of more than 200 partner agencies and feeding programs throughout 26 East Texas counties, including 11 counties served by the T.L.L. Temple Foundation, which are Anderson, Angelina, Bowie, Cass, Cherokee, Houston, Nacogdoches, Panola, Rusk, San Augustine and Shelby.

“The aim of this initiative is primarily to increase support for rural areas in 11 counties we share with ETFB.  Lufkin is blessed to have a number of organizations focused on food insecurity.  Through the Deep East Texas Resource Center, the foundation will be able to enhance our support for organizations serving rural people and rural places,” said T.L.L. Temple Foundation President and CEO Wynn Rosser. “ETFB is a critical resource for our region, and the foundation is excited to work with Dennis and his team in this new way.”

Last fiscal year, the East Texas Food Bank provided more than 21.3 million meals throughout its service area, including approximately 8.4 million meals in the 11-county focus area for this initiative.

In those 11 counties, nearly 20 percent of residents are at risk of hunger, including approximately 26 percent of children.

“Due to the pandemic, we’re expecting the food insecurity rate to grow even further,” said East Texas Food Bank Chief Executive Officer Dennis Cullinane“According to projections from Feeding America, we’re anticipating about one in four East Texans, including one in three children, to be at risk of hunger. We are committed to increasing our distribution and services to meet this need.”

The initiative will also work to address major public health problems related to food insecurity. Family members in food insecure households are more likely to report poorer health and depressive symptoms and have higher risks for chronic diseases like obesity, hypertension and diabetes.

According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, conditions related to heart disease are the leading cause of death in northeast Texas. Additionally, in counties served by the T.L.L. Temple Foundation, the percentages of adults diagnosed with diabetes range from nine to 21 percent.

The initiative will address these health issues by increasing access to healthy, nutritious food and fresh produce items. The grant funding from the Temple Foundation will help ETFB increase produce distribution over the next two years – providing funding for 600,000 pounds of fresh produce in fiscal year 2021 and 1.2 million pounds in fiscal year 2022.

The initiative will also expand ETFB’s Benefits Assistance Program in deep East Texas. Currently, only one of 56 partner agencies in the 11 shared counties offer the program. In conjunction with food distributions, ETFB partner agencies will help clients sign up for programs such as SNAP, WIC, Medicaid and more.

Lastly, the grant will fund the Deep East Texas Resource Center at 105 Lofton St., Lufkin, TX. The new-multi service branch will expand and increase the accessibility of food assistance and provide wrap-around services to community members in need.

The Resource Center is intended to augment the good work done by Lufkin’s current food pantries and will include a Healthy Pantry Program, host nutrition education classes, serve as a fresh produce redistribution center, provide on-site benefits assistance and provide access to other services such as Texas Workforce Commission and WIC.

One of the key elements of the initiative and purposes of the Resource Center is to increase the availability of fresh produce in the 11 rural counties, which are a focus of this initiative.

“Unfortunately, many East Texans have little or no access to fresh produce,” Cullinane said. “Families on a tight food budget are forced to stretch their food dollars and often buy cheap, high-calorie foods that ward off hunger but have limited nutritional value.”