Feedback - Summer 2017

News from the Central Texas Food Bank

Summer 2017

What’s INSIDE

You’re Helping a Family During a Financial Setback Bellhops Helps Provide Additional Fresh Produce

Working Together to Solve Childhood Hunger DOUBLE Your Impact with Our Summer Matching Gift

MATCHING GIFT CHALLENGE $1=$2

At the food pantry, the family gets fresh produce, cereal, bread, rice, beans, sweet peas, milk, protein and everything Myra needs to make a complete meal.

She’ll get chicken from the pantry and make chicken, rice and cut carrots and potatoes to include with the dish. Mayra will also make fajitas and salads.

Thanks to the Food Bank, her family is also eating healthier with more vegetables and fruits in their diet.

You’re Helping a Family During a Financial Setback Eleven-year-old Christopher and his 8-year old sister, Sophia, are typical siblings who play together and talk over each other. At school, Sophia likes to do multiplication, division and write poems. Her brother likes to sketch and wants to be a teacher when he grows up.

As children, they don’t have too many worries.

Like other kids, they loved getting their favorite treats at the grocery store. The sibling duo always looked forward to ice cream, yogurt, chocolate milk and pizza rolls.

Sophia especially loved getting ice cream.

More recently, their family has not been able to afford any extra treats and is barely getting by. Their mother, Mayra, has even had to change her grocery shopping trip schedule to make sure she goes to the store when her kids aren’t home.

“It’s hard, because I would try to go when they weren’t at home so I wouldn’t have to say ‘no, you can’t get that today, no you can’t’ to the kids,” Mayra said.

A financial crisis was not what the family was prepared for when they moved to Austin a couple of months ago from Denver City, Texas.

Living in a small town with a population of

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It’s amazing that these people take time to help us without getting anything back. It’s a great thing and it’s beautiful. fewer than 5,000 made it hard for Mayra’s husband to find a steady job. When he was promised a job in Austin, the family jumped at the opportunity and relocated.

Unfortunately, the job offer fell through once they moved. Her husband was left without a job and no way to afford their new $1,300 two-bedroom apartment. The opportunity the family was looking forward to became a setback.

To get by, her husband began taking up jobs here and there, but it wasn’t enough. The family had to tighten their budget. Mayra began using coupons to buy shampoo, cleaning supplies and food for their pet.

“It was hard because you’re worried about your electricity getting cut off and I had never been through that. I was really worried. We were limited on the groceries, and I had to keep

everything on a tight budget,” Mayra said. “If you spend $5 more than you’re supposed to then you can’t pay one of the bills, so it’s hard.”

The family had to cut all extra expenses. It meant not having cable. It meant the family couldn’t go out to the park, because they couldn’t afford the gas to make any extra trips. It meant Mayra had to tell her kids they couldn’t get any treats at the grocery store.

It meant the family’s eating habits suffered as they cut pricier fresh produce from their diets and could only afford the basics, like rice and beans.

Mayra learned about one of the Food Bank’s Partner Agencies, Covenant Food Pantry, from a friend and began visiting weekly.

“It’s helped out a lot. We’re kind of new here in Austin, so it’s a big help,” she said. “It helps us by having to buy less than before. It’s good.”

Unfortunately, because of the expenses sometimes buying those fruits and vegetables in the store can be quite pricey, so this really helps.

“It’s important to be healthy. Unfortunately, because of the expenses sometimes buying those fruits and vegetables in the store can be quite pricey, so this really helps,” Mayra said.

“Honestly, we eat more vegetables now than before.”

The variety of fresh produce she receives has helped Mayra provide nutritious meals to her children, who can be picky eaters. Though lettuce can be cheaper, her children prefer

eating spinach. At the food pantry, Mayra is able to take spinach home and substitute it for lettuce. She’ll also take home baby carrots, Sophia’s preferred snack.

“I like carrots with ranch dip,” Sophia said. “I won’t eat carrots without my dip.”

At the client-choice pantry, the family is able to choose from a mix of fruits. They’ll take plums, red and green apples and oranges.

Christopher picks out his favorite fruits and eats them in a unique way.

“I like the oranges and the apples. I get the lemons and squeeze them onto the apples with salt, and I like to eat them like that,” Christopher said.

With the extra help the family receives at the pantry, they’re able to buy a little more at the store than they were before.

“It’s a relief. I can buy things now that I couldn’t buy the kids,” she said. “Now I can buy them yogurt…extra fruits and vegetables. We are four in our family, so it’s good what we get here.”

Her husband has recently been able to get a job at a body shop fixing cars. Though they finally have some steady income, it’s still not enough. The family’s income is still less than when they moved to Austin and they’re struggling to pay their rent and bills.

As summer approaches, Mayra is looking forward to their lease ending. Their next step is to find a cheaper place to live. In the meantime, she will continue going to the food pantry to save money on groceries.

“I would like to give a big thanks,” Mayra said. “They have no idea what an impact they have on families. I never knew about this, I don’t have government assistance so this really, really helps…I tell my kids, it’s amazing that these people take time to help us without getting anything back. It’s a great thing and it’s beautiful.”

Working Together to Fight Childhood Hunger

By Kathy Green, Senior Director of Advocacy and Public Policy

In April, Central Texas Food Bank was recognized for being a significant partner of the Austin Independent School District. The Food Bank has worked with Austin ISD in multiple ways—from providing after school meals to its students to lending expertise on district health initiatives through the School Health Advisory Council and the district’s strategic plan. In addition to Austin ISD, the Food Bank works with districts such as Del Valle ISD, Round Rock ISD, Pflugerville ISD, and Cameron ISD on mobile food pantries, nutrition education, and other initiatives. Reaching children at school is critical because children who are hungry cannot learn and often suffer from more discipline issues and school absences.

The Food Bank also supports school districts in the public policy arena. Our advocates work with Congress to support federal child nutrition programs and prevent funding cuts. Although these are federal programs, actions by the Texas Legislature can impact their administration. During this past legislative session, the Food Bank supported bills that would create food pantries on campuses with surplus food from school cafeterias, establish statewide policies to prevent “lunch shaming” when a student’s lunch account has a negative balance, and expand universal lunch programs.

Additionally, we fought any efforts to weaken the structure of these programs in state law.

The Food Bank’s mission is to end hunger in Central Texas. We know one of the most effective ways to do that is by ensuring that our youngest clients have every tool available to succeed, including food security.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

THANK YOU FOR HELPING FIGHT HUNGER!

Round Rock Express Strike Out Hunger July 5, July 19, August 30, 2017 Dell Diamond 3400 E Palm Valley Blvd.

Round Rock, TX 78665 The Round Rock Express will be giving away free lawn tickets for Wednesday home games to any attendees who bring in two H-E-B branded canned food items to the Dell Diamond on game day.

1,7. Bacon and Beer Festival The fourth annual Bacon and Beer Festival, presented by Edible Austin and Eat Boston, raised more than $11,000 for the Food Bank, providing more than 44,500 meals.

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Keep Austin Weird Festival & 5K June 24, 2017 from 4-9 p.m.

Downtown Austin This annual festival celebrates all things weird with sideshow attractions, a costume contest, live music by local bands and the “slowest 5k on the planet” with a race that includes several fun stops. The Food Bank receives $1 from every festival pass sold.

Salt Lick 50th Anniversary Year of Giving August, 2017 Salt Lick BBQ Driftwood Location 18300 FM 1826 Driftwood, TX 78619 Happy birthday to the Salt Lick! The classic barbecue is turning 50 this year. To celebrate, visit the Driftwood Salt Lick any time during the month of August and order Family Style. A portion of your family style meal cost will be donated directly to the Food Bank to help nourish local families.

Hot Sauce Festival August 20, 2017 Fiesta Gardens Now in its 27th year, the Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival is the world’s largest hot sauce festival, boasting more than 300 varieties of hot sauce. There are several different contest categories to crown the best red sauce, green sauce, special variety and pepper sauce. The festival is free with a suggested donation of non-perishable food items to the Food Bank.

3,12. Amplify Austin Amplify Austin brought together hundreds of local nonprofits to raise more than $9 million dollars in online donations in just 24 hours. The Food Bank surpassed our goal and raised enough funds to feed more than 2,800 families for a month.

4. Smithfield Foods Donation As part of Smithfield Foods Helping Hungry Homes® initiative, Smithfield and Randalls partnered to donate 35,000 pounds of protein, which will provide more than 140,000 servings of nutritious protein to families facing hunger.

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5. APLA Golf Tournament The 10th Annual APLA & APES Golf Tournament hosted more than 150 golfers and raised $55,000 creating more than 220,000 meals for Central Texans in need.

6,13. Austin Reggae Festival Reggae Fest is one of the Food Bank’s largest events and has helped raised more than $1 million for the Food Bank since inception. The event raises food and funds for the Food Bank through ticket sales and donations at the gate.

9. Austin Navy Week During Navy Week, US Navy Sailors visiting Austin volunteered at the Food Bank, sorting food in our warehouse and helping to provide 5,200 meals for our community.

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Food for Families Food Drive June 13–23, 2017 Local Randalls Stores CBS Austin has teamed up with Randalls for their annual Food for Families Food Drive. While shopping at your neighborhood Randalls, purchase a pre-packaged bag of food to be donated to the Food Bank or donate a monetary amount at checkout.

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2, 8. CROP Hunger Walk The annual Austin CROP Hunger Walk, sponsored

by Church World Service, raised $64,000 and counting, a portion of which will help provide meals for our community through programs like our Mobile Food Pantry.

10. O.F.C. Whiskey Raffle The Food Bank was generously gifted a very rare bottle of Buffalo Trace’s OF.C. bourbon whiskey that was raffled off and raised $6,679, enough to provide 26,716 meals for our community.

11, 14. Oyster Fest The 5th Annual Austin Oyster Festival was an afternoon filled with oysters of all kinds, drinks and live music for attendees to enjoy. Donations collected during the festival raffle raised more than 8,000 meals for the Food Bank.

16. Star Wars Volunteer Shift Volunteers channeled their inner Jedi to help fight hunger and sort food in product recovery during Volunteer Trilogy Week, which featured light saber training, Star Wars Trivia, a viewing of “The Force Awakens,” and a costume contest.

15. Randalls Check Donation Randalls presented the Food Bank with a $40,000 grant to fight childhood hunger through their “Hunger Is” Program. The grant will support our BackPack program, which provides weekend meals to children.

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MATCH MY GIFT ALL SUMMER

Bellhops Helps Provide Additional Fresh Produce A green box truck arrives at the Food Bank every other week at 9 a.m. It’s Bellhops, a moving company. The back door opens to reveal an empty truck. The driver isn’t at the Food Bank to deliver or pick up furniture as he’s used to doing on any other job. He’s there to pick up and deliver food.

The Chattanooga-based start-up changed the game in the moving industry when they began hiring college students to help individuals with their moving needs. Now, they have the potential to change how the Food Bank gets fresh produce to the community.

With a market presence in cities across the country, they expanded to Austin in 2013, only offering moving labor. Recently, the company acquired its first box truck in Austin to introduce a full moving service.

Taking the lead from other markets, the Austin branch wanted to give back to the community they served.

In Chattanooga, Bellhops trucks would pick up food from food drives and deliver them to the Food Bank. With the Austin branch’s new box truck, now they could do something similar.

“We want to get involved in opportunities that exist across all markets and hunger is a nationwide issue,” Bellhops Communications Director, David Martin, said.

In February, Bellhops and the Food Bank partnered to provide additional fresh produce to the Food Bank’s Partner Agency, Travis

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Heights Christian Outreach Food Pantry.

Bellhops would pick up a few pallets of fresh produce from the Food Bank every other week and drop it off at the food pantry for same-day distribution.

The food pantry is open Tuesday through Friday and on Sunday. Thanks to the support from Bellhops, the food pantry has been able to provide an additional day of distribution for families facing hunger.

Every other Monday, families can stop by to pick up fresh produce. They can get anything from fresh pineapples, oranges, mangoes, apples and bananas to bell peppers, broccoli, lettuce and potatoes.

The additional fresh produce has been especially helpful to families like Veronica’s.

After getting injured in a car accident, Veronica, 56, is unable to work. She supports her mother and it has been hard making ends meet. Since her mom is diabetic, she has a strict diet that

We want to get involved in opportunities that exist across all markets and hunger is a nationwide issue.

consists of eating a lot of vegetables.

Thanks to the additional fresh produce distribution day, Veronica is able to continue cooking healthy meals for her mother.

Since the partnership began in February, Bellhops has helped 1,361 individuals and has helped distribute more than 10,350 pounds of fresh produce.

At that rate, Bellhops will be able to provide approximately 50,000 pounds of fresh produce to families in need over the next year.

We’re excited for the new opportunity our partnership with Bellhops brings to help even more families facing hunger.

You’re Bringing DOUBLE the Joy to Families Your generous support is how thousands of families across Central Texas survive when times get tough. Families like Kassie’s.

After four years of pain flare-ups, 29 year old Kassie was finally diagnosed with fibromyalgia and looking forward to getting her pain under control. Then, a car accident exacerbated her condition and left her temporarily unable to work. Kassie knows she’s young and will eventually be able to provide for herself and her son, Camden, again. In the meantime, while she is recovering and learning to manage her pain, money is tight and the family needs extra help to get by. Kassie is an Army vet and says, “I get a check from the VA once a month, and by the end of the month, we’re throwing stuff together to see what we can make.” When you donate to the Food Bank, you’re sharing a lifeline with Kassie and others like her.

To have a place where I can come and get healthy and good food for my son means a lot.

“Thank you so much for providing for people who are in need,” Veronica said. “Every little bit helps and it is appreciated.”

Plus, young families like Kassie’s have an even harder time in the summertime when children lose access to the free lunches they usually get in their school cafeterias each day. That doesn’t have to be their reality. This summer when you give a gift to the Food Bank, we can make your kindness go even further thanks to a generous $200,000 matching gift challenge from the Gates and Stumberg Families.

Kassie and her son have a long road ahead, but support from places like Destiny Food Pantry in Killeen has definitely helped. “To have a place where I can come and get healthy and good food for my son means a lot,” Kassie says. “I’m hopeful that at some point I won’t have to take advantage of these resources anymore… but to be able to have resources like this is really great.” Your generosity is what makes these resources possible for families struggling to make ends meet.

Don’t wait, give a gift today and help twice as many families like Kassie and Camden’s.

Thanks to your kindness, Kassie and her son can look forward to making memories and enjoying time together while school is out this summer.

HELP NOURISH LIVES FOR GENERATIONS TO COME You may know you can include the Food Bank in your will or living trust to help nourish lives in Central Texas for generations to come. But did you know you can also name the Food Bank as a beneficiary on your life insurance, retirement plan or even your donor-advised fund? Beneficiary designations are quick and easy – most involve a simple form, no lawyers required. And you can review and adjust them any time you want, so they’re a flexible way to give.

Curious about these or other ways to plan a gift?

Contact Amelia Long, Donor Relations Manager, by phone at 512-684-2558 or e-mail along@centraltexasfoodbank.org.

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Mark J. Williams, Chair

Stephen Portner

Barrett Wood, Vice Chair WoodGen, LLC

Hon. Jeff Rose Texas Third Court of Appeals

Terry G. Knighton, Secretary Luminex Corporation

John Sanchez

Kevin J. Koch, Treasurer McLane Company, Inc. Jen Alessandra SolarWinds Heidi Baschnagel National Instruments Corporation Shaun Cranston Brookfield Residential Properties Inc

Clint Scott CLS Partners Sheldy Starkes, MBA, PMP Booker, Starkes & Patodia, Inc. Leslie Sweet HEB Grocery Company, LP Anneliese Tanner Austin Independent School District

Kenneth Gladish, Ph.D.

Jason Thurman PlainsCapital Bank

Hari Jayaram Applied Materials

Michael G. Watkins, MD, FACC Seton Heart Institute

Timothy M. Lee thinc.small, LLC

Scott Weatherford Jackson Walker LLP

Pat Massey IBM Corporation

Shayne Woodard Waterloo Lobby & Advocacy, Inc.

Joyce Mullen Dell, Inc.

FEEDBACK? Questions, comments or change of address?

Email: communications@centraltexasfoodbank.org Read it online Download and subscribe to Food Bank publications at centraltexasfoodbank.org

MESSAGE from the PRESIDENT & CEO Summer is almost here. It’s time for family fun, vacation trips and time spent outdoors. Unfortunately for far too many of our Central Texas neighbors, summer is also a time for hunger.

Summer can push many families to the edge. When school is out, children from low-income households don’t have access to free or reduced-priced lunches creating a potential gap in their access to adequate nutrition. Additionally, increases in childcare costs and energy bills stretch household budgets and put families and older adults at greater risk, turning summertime into hunger time.

To compound the situation, food and monetary donations to the Food Bank tend to decline during the summer. This makes it more difficult for us to provide food to our neighbors in need when they are most vulnerable.

Fortunately, your Food Bank is here to help, but we can’t do it alone. That’s why we’re kicking off our annual Summer Meals That Matter campaign on June 1 with the goal of raising 1 million meals by the end of August for Central Texas kids, families and older adults.

Thanks to matching gifts from our summer campaign sponsors, every dollar donated this summer will provide eight nutritious meals for our neighbors in need.

Your donation will go to support our targeted programs and help us bring back the joys of summer to local families like Mayra and her kids (featured in this issue)—by providing consistent access to the sort of nutritious food they need to help them reach their full potential.

Together, we can end summer hunger. Let’s start by raising 1 million meals.

Thank you.

THANK YOU SPONSORS

Derrick Chubbs President & CEO

Our mission: To nourish hungry people and lead the community in the fight against hunger.

6500 Metropolis Dr., Austin, TX 78744 | 512.282.2111

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