photo credits: Joel Salcido
As clients lined up against the wall at San Saba’s food pantry distribution, Augustina patiently sat near the door, occasionally greeting friends walking in and out of the door.
Although she is also there for food, Augustina doesn’t have to line up with other residents, an unsaid understanding between the attendees. She is treated with respect because she is one of the oldest residents who seek assistance from the food pantry.
“Any food they give helps a lot,” Augustina, 91, said. “I barely get anything in food stamps - $25 for the month.”
Augustina was born and raised in the small town of San Saba and said she never considered leaving. In the early ’50s and ’60s, she and her late husband made a career of harvesting pecans, the city’s well known attribute.
“Harvesting pecans what was work at that time,” Augustina said of the pecan capital.
The couple traveled across the country transporting nuts up until the ‘70s, when work began to regress and eventually stopped. Augustina said they channeled other talents and worked from home.
As Augustina has aged, she has been battling medical conditions. She had her first stroke in the ‘80s, a second one in the 90s, the same year her husband passed away, and her third in the early 2000s.
Relying only on her husband’s life insurance, Augustina makes and sells blankets for extra income.
“The insurance from my husband’s death is what I used to pay the light and water, but sometimes it’s not enough to even buy myself shoes or a dress,” Augustina said. “I don’t know what I would do without the food pantry.”
Area residents have come to rely on Capital Area Food Bank programs as a source of assistance. Without the food bank’s partner agency such as San Saba Food Pantry, Augustina would not have enough income to purchase food after paying basic utilities, a growing experience among Central Texas.
In the 2014 Hunger Study report conducted by Feeding America, an estimated 83 percent of households had to choose between paying for food or utilities.
“Sometimes you do what you have to do,” Augustina said.
