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.

Frank Ellison, CAFB client at the Rosewood-Zaragosa Neighborhood Center, shares while he waits in line at a Fresh Food for Families distribution:

“There’s a lot of poor people that ain’t got nothing. Ain’t got nowhere to sleep. You can see them on a lot of street corners. This [food pantry] helps a lot of people. They don’t get but a little social security and they need something else to help out.  If you’re on a fixed income you have to find some kind of place where you can get some help on your light bills. It’s rough.”

Learn more about hunger in Central Texas, and what you can do about it at HungerisUNacceptable.com

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.

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.

Transition to adulthood can be difficult—especially without any family support. LifeWorks helps men and women 17-23 years old who are homeless, abused, mentally ill or leaving foster care. LifeWorks Street Outreach provides youth with food, assists with housing and job searching, and provides a safe space to build a community of peers. It also serves as an emergency shelter for youth in danger of abuse.

Clients: Caelan Phipps, Sara Bursac, Joshua Preston

            “LifeWorks has helped out tremendously,” says Joshua Preston, who started receiving food from them when he was 18. “If there weren’t food pantries like this, I’d be panhandling.” Joshua struggles with bipolar disease and diabetes, without any family support. He uses the food pantry to get healthy food. “The cans of mixed fruit are really helpful when my blood sugar drops,” he says.

         Caelan Phillips, 19, came to Austin from Wyoming after she was laid-off from her job. “I really like the people in Austin,” she says. “There’s always people to talk to. I want to go back to college and get a nursing degree. One of the ladies here offered to take me out to the community college and talk to them about financial assistance.” And when we asked her about her own family, she said, “They have a lot of other stuff going on. Money is tight.”

Annette Palmer, LifeWorks staff, and Gabriel Lamb, client

Gabriel Lamb, 22, moved to Austin from Phoenix. He remembers donating food and volunteering at a food pantry with his mom when he was younger. “I’ve been on both ends,” he says. “I remember volunteering a long time ago. I used to sort through food. Nobody is immortal when it comes to these things. Sometimes you really need help.” Gabriel’s mom died last year, and says he appreciates the social support network he has found at LifeWorks.

Can you relate to their story? Click here to share your story with us and to listen to more stories like these.

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.

William Hubenschmidt
Development Research VISTA

I am the opposite of lactose intolerant. Since childhood, no food or drink has given me the feeling of nourishment quite like a cold glass of milk. Milk is such an irreplaceable part of my diet that dinner does not feel complete without it. However, a recent experience changed that.

I’m an AmeriCorps VISTA service member and have the privilege of working at the Food Bank as a Fund Development Researcher. I entered AmeriCorps with the goal of serving those in poverty, but also with the awareness that I would personally experience poverty. AmeriCorps pays a biweekly living stipend of $429, low enough to qualify for SNAP (Food Stamp) benefits. Even with food assistance, I am barely able to make ends meet. Recently, I had a glimpse of what life would be like without food stamps.

Photo courtesy of Essenmacher on Flickr

Recently, my monthly SNAP benefits were exhausted ten days early. Unsure of what to do and with little money in my bank account, I decided to approach hunger on a meal-to-meal basis. In the subsequent days, I experienced something between food insecurity and outright hunger. In borrowing tactics from someone who had experienced hunger, I simply chose to eat very little, rather than let hunger control me. This strangely empowering decision worked well for a few days, but the constant thought of food—any food—began to override.

On a Saturday toward the end of this experience, my only meal was a bowl of cereal. As the night approached and my stomach groaned, I couldn’t take it anymore. Impulsively, I decided to splurge on a Jimmy Johns sandwich rather than muster the energy and mental strength to enter a grocery store full of food that I could not afford.

When I entered Jimmy Johns, the smell of bread took on an entirely new dimension, as my nose barely had time to process what my stomach knew instantly. As I ordered, the cashier asked me if I wanted a drink. Normally, I avoid drinking soda, but this time I ordered a large. Before my sandwich was ready, I filled and gulped almost the entire Coke. My habit of avoiding refined sugars went completely out the window as I eventually drank two large Cokes with my turkey sandwich. Although I knew it was unhealthy, the pure calories in the soda felt as nourishing as a glass of milk! At that moment, I was starving—health, nutrition, and bank account empty. As I got up to leave the restaurant, I bought a bag of greasy potato chips and refilled my soda.

This experience taught me that hunger has a powerful effect on psychology and the very perception of food. Only a couple of hours passed before I was hungry again. Soda was a poor choice, but when you’re hungry, any calories will suffice. Even the simplest, most processed sugars. I was no longer in control of my diet.

So, why didn’t I try to get help at the Food Bank? I was naïve about hunger and I thought I could deal with it. Well, I can’t deal with it, and no one should have to. If it happens again, I know the Food Bank is here to help. Hopefully I can get a glass of milk, too.

Food Bank staff are serious about ending hunger. And when it comes to celebrating Halloween, well, we’re serious about that, too. From Poison Ivy (pictured here) to Roller Girl, CAFB staff dressed for the occasion, making this a fun Friday.

If you’re headed out this weekend, enjoy the festivities, and have a Happy Halloween!

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.