“I’m here today because I don’t have a job. I was working, but they didn’t have anything to keep me busy anymore—that was November 29^th. I’m out of money and I need help getting some food,” says Misty.

This is Misty’s first time visiting CAFB’s St. John Community Food Center, but she says she has been visiting other food pantries in the area.

“My boyfriend is in the moving business and this time of year the jobs just dry up. We’re only going to be able to give my landlord $200 this month, because that’s all we have and I don’t know what we’re going to do,” says Misty.

“There are times when ramen noodles is all you have. You eat ramen for a couple of days. It’s cheap and it will fill you up, but you get pretty tired of it,” confesses Misty. “You just have to hope for the best, but without places like this, I don’t know what I would do,” she says.

Food hardship is the inability to buy enough food for the household because of lack of money. Unlike the USDA’s food insecurity data, food hardship is defined as answering “yes” to the question: “Have there been times in the past twelve months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?” According to the Food and Research Action Center (FRAC), “[Food hardship data] provides a unique, comprehensive and timely examination of the struggle that a very large number of American households, in every part of the country, are having with affording enough food.”

This data from the Food Hardship in America – 2010 report confirms what the Capital Area Food Bank and Partner Agencies see every day—many Central Texans struggling to afford adequate food which continues to be a serious problem. With hunger safety net programs under attack in Congress and at the State, now is the time to contact your elected officials and let them know that hunger issues should be a priority. We can’t end hunger without you.

Launch the infographic to learn about food hardship in Central Texas.

Tweet about it:

• FRAC’s #FoodHardship numbers for 2010 are out! 23.2 % of people in Texas  said they struggled to afford enough food. http://bit.ly/ejDJs1
• Help #CAFB spread the word, Austin-Round Rock’s residents are experiencing food hardship at a rate of 20.2%. http://bit.ly/ejDJs1 #txlege
• @SenXXXXXX did you know that XX.X% of residents in your state said they couldn’t afford enough food? http://bit.ly/ejDJs1 #CAFB
• @RepXXXXXX did you know that XX.X% of your constituents said they couldn’t afford enough food? http://bit.ly/ejDJs1 #CAFB
• @TexGov did you know that 23.2% of your constituents said they couldn’t afford enough food? http://bit.ly/ejDJs1 #CAFB

Since the implementation of the electronic benefit system in 1997, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has been long hailed as a model of efficiency, staving off severe hunger, lifting citizens out of prolonged poverty, and protecting the economic and social well-being of its citizens. SNAP recipients shift some cash income that was being spent on food into non-food expenditures upon receiving the benefits. The net effect is increased expenditures in the marketplace for both food and non-food industries. Fifty percent enrollment leaves too much on the table for business, when too little nourishing food fills Central Texans’ dinner tables.

> LAUNCH INFOGRAPHIC

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3Q88032YN4]

It’s that time of the year again – time to join the biggest youth-led food and fund drive in Central Texas.  Each year we like to mix it up and encourage more people to participate.  Last year, Tyson Foods challenged you to comment on their blog , which triggered a 100-pound food donation.

This year, along with Austin’s competing television networks, radio stations, print publications, grocery stores and other community  partners, we’re teaming up with the Boy Scouts of Central Texas to reach our goal of one million meals.  We can achieve our goal with fun activities for you online and in your Central Texas community. Here’s how you can get involved:

1. Join a team. Search online to find your team or start a new team and get registered.

2. Register your team for MLK Day. When you register online, you’ll receive your monthly e-newsletter and a free Resource Kit to help promote your event.

3. Enter the CAFB Souper Bowl of Caring Blog Contest.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5PaRCFsvp8]

Show off your creative talent by sending us a blog post with a photo gallery or video about your work with Souper Bowl of Caring.  Winning entries will be featured on our blog at blog.austinfoodbank.org and on our Facebook page.

You’ll also get a limited edition Hunger is UNacceptable t-shirt and water bottle, as well as a special guided tour of the Food Bank for you and your friends.  This is a great opportunity for youth to build their resume, for college applications, and to demonstrate leadership in your community. Click here to enter.

Contest Rules

• It must be about Souper Bowl of Caring.
• It must mention our goal of raising 1 million meals.
• It must include the words “Hunger is unacceptable.”
• Videos must be no longer than 3 minutes.

4. Donate online. Take a virtual shopping trip by putting food items into your online shopping cart. Then click “Donate” to donate the cost of those items to the Food Bank. It’s a fun way to help end hunger!

5. Support the “Scouting for Food” Food Drive

The Capitol Area Council Boy Scouts will be conducting a Food and Fund Drive in many areas throughout Central Texas. Scouts will leave door hangers on your door the week of January 22 – 29 and return to pick up non-perishable food items the following Saturday.  Your donation will support a Capital Area Food Bank Partner Agency in your community.

On February 5, you’re invited to join us for the 101st anniversary celebration of the Scouting movement at the 62nd annual Boy Scout Parade and Report to the State of Texas in conjunction with the Souper Bowl of Caring. Watch the Boy Scouts State Parade on Congress Avenue where the scouts will collect healthy, non-perishable food donations for our Central Texas neighbors in need.

6. Donate at your local Randalls, H-E-B and Central Market’s

While you’re shopping for snacks for game day, consider sharing a meal with those in need. Purchase pre-packaged bags of most-needed items or look for tear-off coupons in the amounts of $1, $3 and $5 at checkout stands in area Randalls, H-E-B and Central Market grocery stores.  Your purchase of a pre-packaged bag at either retailer provides two meals for a family of four.

7. Participate in Souper Bowl of Caring and save on Harlem Globetrotters tickets

The Harlem Globetrotters “4 Times the Fun” World Tour is coming to Austin on Friday, January 28.  When you support Souper Bowl of Caring you’ll save $7 on tickets. Learn more.

Thank you, Partners:

HEB, Central Market, Randalls, FOX 7, News 8, KEYE TV, KVUE-TV, TeleFutura, Telemundo, Univision, The CW, My Austin TV, KVET, KASE 101, AM 1300 The Zone, Buena 104.3, La Jefa 107.7, Relevant Radio 970 AM, The Statesman, The Jewish Outlook, Ahora sí, Capitol Area Council Boy Scouts of America, and Harlem Globetrotters.

For the federal government, calculating poverty is as simple as using the cost of food at a guideline and applying that measure equally across the country.  In metro areas like Austin, families working in low-wage jobs don’t make enough to live given the local cost of living. Many more expenses – from housing to transportation to health care – factor into the costs of daily life.  Often these families may not be considered poor enough to qualify for safety net programs like SNAP or WIC, but still struggle to make ends meet. When it’s time to make tough choices, the food budget often suffers.

Counties with metro areas are also at a greater disadvantage in receiving federal funds for social assistance programs such as community development block grants. A 2006 study by the United States Department of Agriculture found that when they adjusted for the cost of living for metro areas, the rate of poverty is higher in metro areas, and the prevalence of poverty in non-metro areas is 12 percent lower than in metro areas.  However, adjusting poverty according to the cost of living could have negative effects in funding for non-metro social safety nets, where there is historically a larger concentration of older adults – many of whom live on fixed incomes.

Our new infographic on HungerisUNacceptable.com shows the cost of living for families of different sizes in the Austin-Round Rock area based on the CPPP Family Budget Estimator project.

Choose a family size and learn how the cost of living compares to the federal poverty level.  You can then help families “stuck in the middle” between poverty and a living income by going shopping in our “virtual grocery store.”

Drag the food items to the shopping cart and click the donate button to donate the cost of groceries to help Central Texas families at risk of hunger.  It’s a fun, interactive way to help families “stuck in the middle,” and to learn about the tough choices our Austin-Round Rock neighbors make every day.

Let us know what you think.

We recently learned about the wonderful family who will call Salado, TX their home, thanks to Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

Meet SSG Patrick Zeigler.

Credit: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition - Central Texas Build

Last year, Zeigler and 32 other soldiers and civilians were wounded in gunfire at Fort Hood.  He came very close to being one of the 13 people who died from the attack.

“Survivor” “hero” “fighter” “determined” are some of the words that come to mind when people think about Zeigler.  His injuries, including a bullet hole the size of a softball in his skull, left him on the brink of permanent disability. But, he continued to fight for his life, even in the face of multiple surgeries with serious potential for complications. His fiance’s blog http://patrickjessica.blogspot.com/ is a wonderful resource for you to get to know this family and learn of his road to recovery.

This week, we honor Zeigler with the help of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition who is providing him and his family with a new home in the heart of Texas.  We’re busy collecting food donations to stock his shelves so that he doesn’t need to worry about the healthy food he’ll need to thrive for his long road to recovery.

We’re also stocking shelves for the families in need in Bell County – we need your help.

Come and cheer on the volunteers building this amazing house 24 hours a day, every day this week.  Start a food drive so families like the Zeiglers won’t have to worry about their next meal.  Bring a non-perishable food item with you to donate at the site. You can also drop of your donation at these locations. You may even get a chance to see celebrity guests Xzibit rapper and host of MTV’s Pimp My Ride and Leigh Anne Tuohy from the movie The Blind Side.

Let’s show America how we do Extreme Makeover - Central Texas style.  We do it big. We do it generously. And most of all, we believe that Hunger is UNacceptable.

Jennie Trower
CAFB Ambassador

I love the work I do. I believe in the Food Bank’s mission and want to tell people about it every chance I get.  In this age of non-stop electronic communication — cell phones, texting, Facebook, Twitter — it’s a refreshing change to connect face-to-face with people around such an important issue like hunger.

My most recent speaking engagement was at St. Michaels Episcopal Church for the Souper Bowl of Caring Food & Fund Drive. I talked to two different Sunday School classes, and seeing the children decorate the food donation bags was heart-warming. Because more than half of AISD students qualify for free- or reduced-price lunch, these volunteers were helping others just like themselves, in their own community. Children whose parents have to choose between paying rent and putting food on the table. Children who might get breakfast, but don’t know where dinner is coming from.

I’ve been that child, waiting in line at elementary school with my special ticket for a free lunch. And I was in that family, with the single mom who, from time to time, relied on the food pantry at a local church to stretch the end-of-the-month food budget. I’m grown up now, and a mom myself. As I look at my own son, it saddens me to think about the thousands of hungry children in Central Texas, and the parents struggling to feed them. It’s heartbreaking, it’s unnecessary and it’s unacceptable.

We can do something about it. We can donate, educate and advocate. If we care, we can change the face of hunger.

I volunteer at the Capital Area Food Bank, and I love what I do.

Alese Colehour
Communications VISTA

Why is Hunger Unacceptable?

Everyone has a story. Every month, I speak with dozens of clients face-to-face who receive food assistance from a CAFB supported food pantry. With each new person I meet, I’m more and more awed by the incredible strength of the human spirit. Some live in unimaginable hardship, and yet I see glimmers of optimism and hope in their eyes. Even people who must sacrifice dignity and pride in order to feed their children, still dream about a brighter future. This is why I believe hunger is unacceptable: because a loaf of bread or a bag of apples is a small cost for giving someone hope.

Listen to what the CAFB community says about hunger:

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

Tell us: Why is hunger unacceptable to YOU?

Alese Colehour
Communications VISTA

I have the amazing job of collecting hunger stories from our clients, donors, volunteers and staff, and today I’m excited to introduce our newest initiative: podcasting! Podcasts are downloadable audio files you can listen to and stream online.

Our podcasts feature weekly stories from hungry Central Texans. I ask questions like “How has hunger affected your life?” and “Why is the Food Bank important to you?”

Subscribe in iTunes and start listening today! Tell us about your own experience with hunger, and help us spread the message that Hunger Is UNacceptable.

Louis Blase, Catholic Charites, CAFB Partner Agency

Today’s Feature Story: Louis has a passion for cooking Cajun food. He is a Hurricane Katrina evacuee hailing from the heart of New Orleans. (Listen here.)

Subscribe to Capital Area Food Bank Hunger Stories by Email

Molly Robbins
Community Events Coordinator

Fasting to lose weight, fasting to detox, fasting to find spiritual happiness. These are all human quests that can be met by avoiding food. Yesterday, I fasted for an entirely different reason. I fasted with the Muslim Students Association at The University of Texas at Austin to ‘go hungry for a day so someone else doesn’t have to.’

Every year, the Muslim Students Association at UT sponsors a charity event called Fast-A-Thon. Students, faculty, and people outside of the UT community volunteer to fast (abstain from food and drink for one day) and are brought together in the evening to break their fast and enjoy a free dinner. For each person that fasts, up to $1 is donated to the Food Bank. 

This was my experience with hunger: I woke up hungry, drove to work, turned on my computer, and began my daily routine… hungry. I continued working through lunch and could smell the food in the workroom and down the hall—the smell of food was everywhere. I went to UT to make a presentation and all I could focus on was my hunger pains.  As someone who normally struggles to get from one meal to the next without snacking, this wasn’t easy. Throughout my day, hunger never left me. I knew at any time I could eat, that I was ultimately in control and could choose to eat and end my discomfort. So many Central Texans are left ‘fasting’ without the option to break it.

This I believe: Hunger is unacceptable. There are people (our neighbors!) who unwillingly experience hunger everyday. I’m hopeful that our community also believes that hunger is unacceptable, and with everyone’s help and support, we can end hunger.