As the pandemic heads into its eighth
week, agencies are expect unprecedented demand to keep soaring.
By Nataly Keomoungkhoun 7:50 PM on May 1, 2020
Last
month, the North Texas Food Bank had its largest free food distribution since
the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
More than
6,500 boxes of food were given to 2,230 families, and while none were turned
away, organizers say it signifies what could be a months-long marathon for
local nonprofits hoping to alleviate hunger in North Texas.
Before
the pandemic, an estimated 800,000 people in North Texas faced food insecurity.
As the region’s crisis heads into its eighth week of displacing people from all
walks of life, food banks and pantries are bracing themselves as demand for
food surges to unprecedented levels.
During the pandemic, the North Texas Food Bank has routinely
offered mobile food distributions to help feed people all over the area. Demand
for food has risen in each of the last seven weeks.
“From
January through mid-March, typically per week we were distributing about 1.1
million to 1.2 million pounds of food, depending on the week,” said Trisha
Cunningham, the agency’s CEO and president. “The last couple of weeks, we
distributed about 2 to 2.1 million pounds of food per week.”
The
nonprofit has served about 13,000 families in the last two months. Some 50% to
70% of those are new clients, the agency estimates.
While the
numbers have soared, Cunningham said she doesn’t believe that the demand has
peaked. Federal stimulus checks may alleviate some of the need, she said, but
that aid won’t last forever.
“We're
preparing to be able to continue to meet the increased demand,” Cunningham
said. “Some of the projections we've seen say that we're going to need to plan
for that for the next 12 to 24 months.”
The North
Texas Food Bank is one of the area’s largest suppliers of food to pantries.
Many nonprofits rely on a steady stream of food from the bank just to stay
afloat. Equal Heart, a nonprofit that distributes meals to northwest Dallas
neighborhoods, gets all of its food from the bank.
Keven
Vicknair, Equal Heart president and CEO, said that as long as the food bank is
providing food, her agency will be able to meet demand, which almost doubled between
mid-March and mid-April. The nonprofit is staffed by AmeriCorps members, which
means that financial strains aren’t a problem.
“The only
way we were able to meet that increased demand was because we increased the
number of AmeriCorps members, and we can get all the food all day from North
Texas Food Bank,” she said.
Equal
Heart serves 25 apartment communities in the Dallas area with a focus on
complexes in Bachman Lake area in northwest Dallas. Its direct-to-door
distribution model, which was in place before the pandemic, allows clients to
stay at home to receive food.
In March,
Equal Heart served 3,200 families, up from 1,800 families in February. The
difference was made up entirely of new clients, of whom 95 percent were
Hispanic, Vicknair said.
At
Minnie’s Food Pantry in Plano, budget concerns linger as many grocery partners
run low on food. Executive assistant Zoya Jackson said via email that the
nonprofit, which gets much of its food supply from grocery stores, has seen
monetary and food donations plateau as the pandemic continues.
Like
other nonprofits, Minnie’s has also seen an uptick in new clients. In March,
the pantry served more than 8,000 people, almost half of whom were
first-timers. The pantry also helps serve Plano ISD families who are facing
food insecurity; that program consists of over 6,600 people.
That new
demand for food has placed an unexpected and increasing financial strain on the
pantry.
“When you
factor in the growing need for food assistance along with the increased cost of
goods,” Jackson said, “we are left with a much larger expense that we did not
budget for.”
At
Crossroads Community Services, a food pantry that serves Dallas, Ellis and
Navarro counties, the virus has changed the way the organization conducts
business, from a change in services to adjusting its operating hours.
“It’s
been challenging,” said Jay Cole, the agency’s executive director. “All
organizations have to be nimble during this time because the rules changed
along the way.”
Before
the pandemic, Cole said, the pantry used to serve on average about 75
households a day. On one particular day after the start of the pandemic, it
served 284 households, of which 195 were new families.
“That got
our attention,” Cole said. “That day, [we] through our pantry alone, gave out
about 19,000 pounds of food.”
Crossroads
Community Services is a North Texas Food Bank partner, and to receive food from
the bank, most pantries have to pay for a handling fee. Over the course of the
pandemic, those fees have been waived to allow money to go toward operational
costs, which Cole said has provided a huge relief for the pantry and its
customers. In turn, the organization has been able to waive handling fees for
its clients, he said.
“The
barrier for getting access to nutritious food has been removed, and that’s a
big deal.”
Cole said
he has been “dumbstruck” by the amount of financial support from the community,
which has provided the pantry with enough money to pay for workers and
additional food. The support has been motivating and humbling, he said.
However,
like other nonprofit leaders, Cole said he doesn’t see the demand for
disappearing anytime soon, even after the virus runs its course. But the food
supply isn’t a worry, he said.
The
concern, he said, is that getting back to “normal life” will be harder for
households that are already running on empty.
“This is
probably going to be a marathon, not a sprint of addressing this need,’” Cole
said. “On average, the families we get are living on incomes of $1,800 a month.
The ones that we see, I mean, my goodness. It’s gonna take a while.”
How
to help
Minnie’s Food Pantry
To
donate: minniesfoodpantry.org/donate or text MINNIES
to 41444.
North Texas Food Bank
To
donate: ntfb.org/give
Crossroads Community Services
To
donate: give.ccsdallas.org
All three
organizations are participating in North Texas Giving Tuesday Now,
which will take place from 6 a.m. to midnight May 5. Learn more: https://www.northtexasgivingday.org/
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