Local News (Editorial): Food Bank Needed More Than Ever

Food Bank Needed More Than Ever
(Eagle Editorial Board)

From the Bryan-College Station Eagle

Rising gas prices, which are forcing up food costs and other expenses, are hurting everyone, but none more than the working poor. While most of us can either pay the higher prices or cut a few corners here and there, for our poorest neighbors there are no corners left to cut, no savings to dip into.

Simply put, they are hurting and the situation only will get worse. Fortunately, for more than 20 years now, the good folks at the Brazos Valley Food Bank have helped those in need get by.

Now, like families everywhere, the food bank is hurting -- and it needs our help.

Rising gas prices are affecting the food bank's budget. Already, with the year not quite halfway over, the food bank has spent 60 percent of the money it had allotted for making deliveries and picking up donated food. As a result, when they met Monday night, food bank board members looked at ways to cut the budget in other areas.

It isn't just the cost of gas that is hurting, though. One of the food bank's most successful programs is its backpacks for children, which provides kid-friendly food for the weekend to children at 15 area schools, after-school programs and recreation centers, even during the summer months. Each backpack is filled with food that can easily be opened and prepared by even the youngest school children.

Because the food needs to be in single-size containers or with pop-top lids, the food bank usually has to purchase it. That has always been expensive, but those costs have risen greatly, said executive director Theresa Mangapora. In fact, she noted, the food bank has already spent its entire annual budget for the program. It only costs $30 to sponsor a child's backpack for a month or $390 for a year.

Another program, the senior bag, a bag of 12 items provided to recipients of the Meals on Wheels program to ensure that they have more than the one good meal delivered to them every weekday. Unfortunately, the food bank only has funds to provide the bags to 150 of the neediest 420 senior citizens who get Meals on Wheels in Brazos, Burleson, Grimes and Robertson counties. For only $24 a month or $312 a year, donors may sponsor a senior bag.

The third program is really having an impact now. Family boxes are filled with 20 items such as peanut butter, rice, pasta, tunafish and chili to help low-income families struggling to make ends meet keep food on the table. More than 200 of the boxes have been distributed in the past year and the demand keeps rising. It costs $20 a month or $260 a year to sponsor a box a week.

Strange as it seems, demand for food doesn't drop when summer arrives and gardens are in bloom. In fact, because so many children who would get free or reduced-cost breakfasts and lunches in school are home, the demand rises. But because the weather is warm and fresh produce is so plentiful, donations drop.

That's where all of us come in. Please send a check today to the Brazos Valley Food Bank, P.O. Box 74, Bryan, TX 77806-0074. Be sure to indicate in the memo section of the check whether the donation is for the backpack, senior bag or family box program. You may also safely donate online at the food bank Web site: www.bvfb.org.

Every donation helps our hungry neighbors survive.

The food bank is getting other help this summer. At 10:30 a.m. today, Mrs. Baird's Bread will deliver 500 loaves of bread to the food bank's Junior League Distribution Center in Bryan. The donation is part of the company's Pass the Bread celebration of its 100th anniversary. Over the next 10 weeks, the food bank will receive 5,000 loaves of bread, which will be distributed to its more than 40 affiliates to help feed those in need.

And, trusties at Bryan's J.W. Hamilton Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections are growing fresh squash, tomatoes, okra and other vegetables in a special garden and donating the fresh food to the food bank. Mangapora praised the inmates, saying, "Good, fresh vegetables are something a lot of us take for granted. Most of the people we serve are used to getting canned goods, but that fresh carrot or that fresh squash really gets people excited."

The garden is part of the Fresh Approach partnership between the TDC and the Texas Food Bank Network. So far, more than 500 pounds of produce have been donated this season.

Thanks to the Hamilton trusties and the good people at Mrs. Baird's for helping us feed hungry people throughout our six-county area.

Published Tuesday, June 24, 2008