With one in six Central Texans facing hunger, the Food Bank strives to ensure families in need don’t go hungry. Each week the Food Bank serves nearly 46,000 individuals; however, the fight against hunger goes beyond providing a nourishing meal.
Most of the working families we serve struggle with more than just having a meal on their table. Nearly two-thirds of the families we help have to choose between food and having a roof over their head.
To better serve families in need, the Food Bank’s ReThink Hunger Initiative’s purpose is to better allocate food and resources to our Partner Agencies that align with the mission of fighting hunger and encourage them to build their capacity to meet the needs of our community.
ReThink Hunger's goals are to improve the capacity of our partners to handle and distribute larger quantities of nutritious food, increase availability and access to food for families, engage in SNAP outreach to ensure clients are receiving supplemental benefits, and collaborate with social services to provide additional healthy and economic opportunities for clients.
Each year, the Food Bank evaluates our Partner Agencies on their achievement of ReThink Hunger goals and they’re placed at different levels- platinum, gold, silver, bronze, community partner -based on the completion of those objectives. Learn more about the assessment process here.
Of our 246 Partner Agencies, only 11 agencies received a Platinum rating this year. We would like to congratulate Blessings from God Food Pantry, Caring Place, Churches Touching Lives for Christ, Covenant United Methodist Church, Hays County Food Bank, Helping Hands Ministry of Belton, LaCare, Leander Church of Christ, Round Rock Area Serving Center, Hill Country Community Ministries and Reveal Resource Center for their outstanding work fighting hunger.
Together these agencies have distributed more than 6 million pounds of food, with 80 percent of that food meeting a high standard of healthiness in the Food Bank’s Choose Healthy Options Program. All sites are open at least one day a week, with 10 sites offering evening and weekend hours that allow working families more access to food.
Additionally, our partners offer onsite assistance to other benefits, such as SNAP and health services. Nine of these agencies also offer onsite economic opportunity services including partnerships with Texas Workforce Solutions, financial institutions, literacy organizations, GED and ESL classes and career services.
To reward our Platinum partners for their incredible work, the Food Bank gives them priority on grants, bonus product, pilot programs, direct delivery, and spotlights them in Agency Newsletters, among other incentives.
Fighting hunger isn’t easy, but with the help of our network of Partner Agencies, we’re able to provide all-around support to families in need and transform the way we fight hunger.
Thank you to all of our Partner Agencies for their amazing work to make a difference in the lives of families!
“We love you guys and thank you so much for all of your blessings that you have given us,” Karen, Covenant Food Pantry client, said.
