Today, at our annual “Hunger Heroes” appreciation luncheon at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Austin, we celebrated with special guests our accomplishments in providing an unprecedented 17.2 million meals to nearly 300,000 hungry Central Texans. It was also an opportunity to honor  Mr. Eddie Garcia of H-E-B for his inspirational leadership of H-E-B programs in support of our mission and his dedication to ending hunger. Eddie was responsible for important public affairs and community programs including:

• Establishing the H-E-B Food Bank assistance program which supports 17 Texas food banks.  Thanks to this program, more than 2 million pounds of product was donated to CAFB this past year.
• Developing H-E-B’s “Help End Hunger” annual store campaign which raised more than $75,000 this past year for the Food Bank.
• Creating and developing the “Feast of Sharing” free community dinners in December and November.
• Leading efforts to establish the first food bank in Mexico.

Left to right: Dana Shelton (CAFB), Eddie Garcia (H-E-B), David Davenport (CAFB)

In spite of retirement, Eddie’s relationship with us and the Food Banking community continues in his current role as the H-E-B Food Bank Assistance Program consultant.

Eddie, and our Hunger Heroes, are shining examples of how one person can change many lives. Thank you, Central Texans! View photos of our Hunger Heroes.

Top row: Michelle Walker-Moak (Applied Materials) and Amanda Webster (National Instruments). Bottom row: Karin Dicks (AMD) and Kristi Fontenot (AMD).

To see how your support made a difference this past year, please view our annual report published today.

The 17th annual Austin Reggae Festival is bigger and better than ever!  A third day has been added to the festival for even more reggae fun for you, your friends and family. (But unfortunately not for your dog. Fluffy will have to enjoy Reggae Fest at home.) And, when you volunteer, you get to enter the festival for free after your shift. Remember to recruit 600 of your friends to volunteer with you because that’s how many volunteers we’ll need to make this event a success.

Win free passes! When you text “AustinReggae” to 30644, you’ll be entered to win one of five 1-day passes to the festival (a $30 value!) that we’ll be giving away each week starting March 17, St. Patrick’s Day. You’ll also receive the latest news, access to special giveaways at the festival and volunteer info.  Standard text messaging rates apply.

Good luck, and we’ll be back to announce the winners next week.

Check Out Our  iPhone App,  iPheedANeed

We’re excited to announce our latest resource to help our community help end hunger – the iPheedANeed iPhone app.  It’s not just our website on a phone.  You’ll also get kid-friendly, healthy, low-cost recipes, a fun game featuring healthy, non-perishable food items (the stuff we love for you to donate) and an easy resource for all CAFB news. We think you’ll have a lot of fun with this app, and we encourage you to tell us what we can do to make it even more fun and useful.

To download it for free, visit the website at http://www.ipheedaneed.com or simply download it now from iTunes.

After work, you can find Christina Vara, CAFB Community Relations Assistant, running around town as she trains for the upcoming 26 Miles for 26 Charities Half Marathon on February 14. “I would never have classified myself as a runner,” she admits. “I was the girl in middle school who would collapse from an asthma attack, and not run. I never would have guessed that I’d be doing this, but it’s actually really fulfilling.”

It started in October when Christina ran the Livestrong Challenge 5K race to honor her boyfriend who recently won a tough battle with cancer. “I think I wouldn’t be able to do something like this if it were for my own motivations,” she says. “I need something more important, outside of myself, to make me take on something like this. I thought if I run 13 miles for the Food Bank that’d be a cool and unique way to raise awareness about hunger in Central Texas.”

Christina’s goal is to raise $350 from the community to benefit the Food Bank. “Even if I won’t be able to meet the people I’m helping to feed by running,” she says, “to know that the people in need might get a meal because I’m running is really empowering.” Despite a recent knee injury, she says she is hoping to finish in just over two hours. We’ll see you at the finish line, Christina!

If you’d like more information, and to see how she’s doing on her fundraising progress, visit her website here.

Galindo Elementary Leadership Council students held a food drive during Souper Bowl of Caring. Watch the video –

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_x2HXuoay0&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Thanks to everyone who supported this year’s Souper Bowl of Caring. Because of the great turnout, we’re still picking up donations from the stores! Stay tuned to see if your donations reached our goal of providing 750,000 meals.

Did you do something fun for Souper Bowl of Caring? Share your story with us in the comments section below. We love hearing from you!

Click here for more opportunities to get involved through our community events.

Daysy Padilla and her daughter, Yarali

On Daysy Padilla’s 18th birthday, she was at St. Ignatius Food Pantry for food assistance to nourish her two daughters.

“It’s hard when we run out of food. It’s all about the kids,” she said, gesturing toward 2-year-old Yarali, “They’re hungry!” Daysy lives with her mom, who works and helps support the girls.

Daysy is enrolled in an online school program, which allows her the flexibility she needs to finish high school at her own pace.

“I don’t like leaving the kids in daycare, and that stops me from doing a lot of things,” she says. “I would go to school, but I don’t want to leave them in daycare. I’s expensive.”

“Right now, we’re having some hard times,” said Daysy. “There aren’t any jobs; people don’t have money to buy food.” When we asked her what people should do, she said “I think the community should come together and help get all these children fed.”

Can you relate? Do you have a story to share? Tell us in the comments section below.

Listen to our podcasts for more personal experiences and struggles with hunger.

David Davenport
President and CEO

This time last year, I was in Washington, D.C. for the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States. The night before the historic ceremony, I had the opportunity to participate in an interfaith celebration where Methodist Bishop Gregory V. Palmer shared his thoughts on the upcoming event. He said “Our eyes burn. Our American eyes, from the bright light of possibilities.”

Few Americans have been immune to the impact of the economic crisis that so aggressively hit our nation just prior to the inauguration, and continues with little relief on the horizon. Press reports and pundits have indicated that Texas (and specifically Central Texas) has been spared the brunt of the economic challenges. A deeper, more realistic look at 2009 in Central Texas indicates that more families, seniors and children found themselves clients of the Capital Area Food Bank.

Mobile Food Pantry distribution, San Saba, TX, 2009

Even before the severe economic decline, Texas had the country’s highest percentage of children at risk of hunger. As more and more Texans found themselves in need of food assistance, the SNAP (Food Stamp) enrollment system began to fail, and the Food Bank-led hunger-relief system became overwhelmed with new clients as the hunger line grew by 60 percent.

In response, CAFB deployed new assets and programs such as the Mobile Food Pantry and Central Texas Food Rescue, and opened direct distribution service centers in East Austin and Pflugerville. The Food Bank also invested in two new full-sized tractor trailers to increase delivery, opened a satellite warehouse facility and provided more than 23 million pounds of nutritious food to those desperately in need (up from an average 15.7 million pounds 2006-2008).  

As we begin 2010, we find ourselves in the challenging position of rapidly growing our organization to meet the challenges of a struggling economy and its impact on our more than 300,000 clients, and strategically positioning ourselves to shrink the hunger line and ultimately provide a long-term solution for hunger in the communities we serve.

Over the next 12 months, the Food Bank will deploy our second Mobile Food Pantry, expand direct service to clients, and develop systems to assist our organization in tracking the impact of the critical supplies distributed. With our collaborative partners, we will expand Partner Agency capacity, and we will continue to meet the demand and shrink the hunger line.

Dell and others volunteering in Product Recovery, 2009

I am confident we will have success as we continue to evolve. I am sold on the Capital Area Food Bank because I am sold on YOU. From the 27,000 members of our community who made financial contributions, to the 13,000 volunteers who gave more than 77,000 hours of service, and to those who gave their voice to the public policy issues impacting so many of our neighbors in need, YOU were there for the children, families and seniors in need of physical and emotional nourishment. YOU are the ones who believe hunger, in a community as resourced as ours, is economically, socially and morally unacceptable. YOU believe, YOU acted on your belief, and YOU placed food in front of those in need – food that would otherwise not have been there.

 Thank you. We celebrate our outstanding work together.

 Now, it’s back to work.

Sara and Austin McElroy met while volunteering at the Food Bank. Nine years later, they married on October 16, 2009.  They say serendipity brought them together when they individually signed-up to volunteer through their honor society at the University of Texas (UT). “The work [at the Food Bank] lent itself to carry on a conversation, while still performing the needed tasks, which provided a friendly atmosphere and made the experience comfortable,” Sara said.

Sara completed her nursing degree in 2005 at UT, and currently works in the operating room at St. David’s Medical Center. Austin is returning to school for a master’s degree in biomedical engineering. “The Food Bank holds a special place in our hearts since it provided the venue for what would be a pivotal point in our lives,” says Sara.

In honor of their first meeting at the Food Bank, Sara and Austin generously made a donation for each of their wedding guests.
Sara said, “Please accept this donation as a ‘Thank You’ for what we consider to be a priceless gift – the opportunity to come together in the spirit of service, and to begin a relationship with each other to last a lifetime.”

Congratulations, and thank you, Sara and Austin!

Have you made a donation to a local nonprofit in leiu of a gift for a birthday, wedding and/or holiday? Share your experience with us in the comments section below.

David Davenport
President and CEO

When we think of the holidays, children often come to mind. We can all probably recall memories of children with gifts to unwrap or a delicious holiday meal to eat.

You might be surprised to know that many Food Bank clients are children. Texas has the highest rate of food-insecure children in the nation. 

In fact, one-in-three of the more than 300,000 people nourished each year by the Capital Area Food Bank is a child.

To help the thousands of children who benefit from Food Bank services each year, consider supporting CAFB this holiday season through these three simple ways:

• Order special CAFB holiday cards
• Give through our virtual gift catalog
• Make a one-time donation

We need your help to make sure all children receive the nourishment they need to learn and grow. Thank you for turning hungry holidays into happy holidays!

Patricia Luna lives with her husband, three children and grandson. Her Food Stamps were reduced from $455 to $195 per month when her 20-year-old son enrolled in Phoenix University online college.  “He’s constantly hungry,” she said about her son. “Grown kids eat more than little ones. Two-hundred dollars a month doesn’t get you too far.”

She says she also worries about her diabetic husband.  “There are some days he just doesn’t eat,” she explained. “He’s working or doesn’t have time to come home, and now we can’t even afford his medication because we have to use that money to buy groceries. He needs to eat.”

Patricia previously worked as a hotel lobby attendant and now stays at home to take care for her grandson. “My husband told me, ‘You need to be here for this baby,’” she said. She also helps her daughter get to-and-from Del Valle every day where she attends high school and plays volleyball.

“I only need a little help. That’s why I started coming to the [St. Ignatius] food pantry,” she explained.

Patricia brings her whole family to church three times-a-week. “That’s the only thing that’s helped us stay strong— faith in God,” she proclaimed. “God is helping in every way he can.”

Can you relate? Share your story with us in the comments section below.