Karen Price recently lost her advertising job and is struggling to find employment. Besides losing her job, Karen also lost her health insurance and may be in danger of losing her car if she doesn’t find employment soon.

“This is rough!” she said. “I’m living month-to-month and I’m barely making it because I have a car payment, too. I’m $999 away. I cannot lose that car.”

Karen never visited a food pantry, until now. She hopes to receive food stamps (for the first time) and expects her benefit money to arrive soon. Until it does, she is grateful to get food from her local food pantry in south Austin. “I love the fresh foods you get, and I can stretch the hamburger meat for about a week, if I make spaghetti and tacos or hearty soups,” she said.

Can you relate to her story? Click here to find a list of Partner Agencies.

David Davenport
President and CEO

When disaster strikes, we are prepared to respond with food assistance and emergency supplies. We put an Influenza A H1N1 (Swine Flu) disaster plan in place in order to respond to the needs of our Partner Agencies, clients, volunteers and employees.

Our disaster plan includes:

• An internal action plan for CAFB to function at a disaster response level with fewer staff and minimal access to volunteers.
• Additional food, water and supplies have been ordered to supplement the disaster relief supplies in our warehouse. These items will support an extended local disaster.
• In the event that one-third of our Partner Agencies (food pantries, soup kitchens across Central Texas) is closed because of illness, CAFB will begin direct distribution from its warehouse at 8201 South Congress Avenue.
• Internal personal care protocols are upgraded to ensure a safe workspace and inhibit the spread of flu virus at our location.
• CAFB senior staff are prepared to instruct employees to work from home to maintain operations, if needed.
• CAFB will maintain open lines of communication with Central Texas VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster), Texas Food Bank Network and Feeding America to coordinate needs and response.
• Senior staff is meeting daily to review and update our status.

As the need progresses, check back here for calls for public assistance.

Lent begins today and during this Lenten season (Feb. 25 – April 11) we’re asking Central Texans, as part of their observance, to consider donating to the Food Bank. 

Our Partner Agencies are experiencing 50 percent more people needing food assistance than this same time last year, and many for the first time. 

The Lenten season is often associated with fasting, a deliberate choice to limit food, while a food-insecure family may have to choose between paying rent or purchasing nutritious foods.

Bishop Gregory M. Aymond, Catholic Diocese of Austin  –

“He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry” (Mt 4:2).

As this scripture tells us, Jesus felt the hunger pains that our hungry brothers and sisters feel each day. We, too, in these days of Lenten fasting and abstinence should be brought to the point of these pains. The physical hunger, for want of food, is to make us more aware of our spiritual hunger. If done with humility and love, rather than obligation, our hunger is offered to God as a pleasing sacrifice.

In the book of Tobit, Raphael the Angel tells Tobit and his son how to increase the power of their sacrifice, “Prayer and fasting are good, but better than either is almsgiving accompanied by righteousness. A little with righteousness is better than abundance with wickedness. It is better to give alms than to store up gold; for almsgiving saves one from death and expiates every sin. Those who regularly give alms shall enjoy a full life” (Tb 12:8-9).

How wonderful it is, then, to make a sacrifice of hunger on behalf of those who hunger every day. The Church requires us to fast and abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. However, we could voluntarily fast on all Fridays of Lent. The traditional Catholic fast is to have one full meal and two smaller meals that equal the size of a regular meal. Consider almsgiving in the form of donating the difference or the cost of those smaller meals to help all of those in Central Texas who have true hunger.

Rev. John McMullen, Senior Pastor, First United Methodist Church, Downtown Austin –

“During this holy season many are looking for significant ways to be intentional in their spiritual activity. Our tradition suggests that such significance can be found in service and in generosity.  The last months have been difficult ones financially for many people in our area. Many are having to make decisions between shelter and food.  The Capital Area Food Bank is one of those agencies that helps those in such hard places. Our congregation has been a supporter of their work for a number of years, but the need is now greater.

With that in mind, I would suggest a daily setting aside of a can of food and a time of prayer for the ones who will receive and benefit from receiving nourishment in their time of need. On a regular basis drop off these set-aside and prayed-over gifts so that it will be available for those in need. You will enrich the lives of others and also enrich your Lenten preparation for Easter.”

Lisa Goddard
Advocacy and Online Marketing Director

Address the obesity epidemic by improving children’s access to healthy foods.

 Are we passive participants (consumers), waiting for that perfect opportunity or product to come our way? Or do we choose how we want to live (citizens) and seek out people and opportunities to make that world a reality? Regardless of your approach, there’s an opportunity, today, to address the obesity epidemic.

Texas food banks are a solution:

Texas food banks are one way to provide access to healthy foods to children in low-income families. With the efficiency to move more than 205 million pounds of food every year, Texas food banks have the public trust and community access needed to put the right food in the right hands.  The Texas Food Bank Network (TFBN) consists of 19 food banks, serving all 254 counties in Texas.  The 3,600 local feeding agencies TFBN works with including 355 agencies in CAFB’s 21-county service area help feed hundreds of thousands of children each year.

Texas food banks are a direct source of food for many children in need.

Food pantries, Kids Cafes, weekend backpacks and other programs of the Texas food bank system specifically address the issues of food insecurity in low-income households with children. Demand for these programs has increased 11-12 percent since last year.   CAFB’s Partner Agencies have seen an up to 50 percent increase in need since this time last year, many seeking food assistance for the very first time. So, although the shelves aren’t empty, food is moving off of them faster than ever.  The largest month of distribution in our 27-year history was last October.  We are replacing 1.8 – 2 million pounds of food every month.

YOU are a solution:

Our commitment to nourishment is about giving beyond what is comfortable or easy, and doing what is right for Texas and its children. If we simply fill bellies and do not engage our community leaders, we will not succeed in our mission. And we believe Texans want children to eat well.

Former senator Paul Wellstone, who was known for articulating his values, said it best:

“A society that abandons its children with inadequate health care, child care and nutrition, is a society that has failed in its mission.”

We need your help.

As a citizen, you have a valuable role in making important issues part of the public debate.  As an individual, you can strengthen the public policy dialogue by bringing useful information and perspective to that conversation. It is your right to participate. Leaders need you to do their job well, and to serve our community.

In working for an organization whose mission is in part to “lead the community in ending hunger,” I think about the type of leader our organization can be.  The most effective leaders care about results.  They don’t just talk, they do. And more importantly, they give others the ability and capacity to achieve their goals. We must nurture leadership, in addition to nurturing bellies.

Please join the CAFB Online Community and sign up for Action Alerts to learn more about what you can do.

For the last six months, Ernest Barra has been coming once-a-month to the Catholic Charitities (one of our 355 Partner Agencies) for nutritious items that are expensive for him to purchase. He likes to share his food with friends and family members, including his aunt. “She doesn’t have any money,” Barra said. “Her old man passed away and she barely gets $500 in Social Security.”

Fortunately, Barra relies on the food pantry being open, even if he uses it sporadically. “Once in a while I’ll have a little money left and I figure, I won’t come here because I’ll leave it for somebody who really needs it, you know? I come here when my cupboards are bare.”

Our Partner Agencies distribute food and grocery products to clients throughout our 21 county service area. Some provide assistance in the form of bags of groceries.  Others serve hot meals in a soup kitchen or provide meals as part of treatment programs. 

For more information on our Partner Agencies, click here.