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

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!

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!

Oktoberfest brought together some of the city’s best beer, bands and tasty food this past weekend. Austin’s favorites Guy Forsyth, Dustin Welch, Nakia and his Southern Cousins, and others entertained the festival goers.

And get this, thanks to all the volunteers and attendees, the Food Bank raised more than $3,700 and 2,400 pounds of food for hungry Central Texans!

Thank you, Austin!

Click here to see more photos from this event.

Did you go to Oktoberfest? What was your favorite part? Share your story in the comments section below.

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.

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.

Sherry LeBlanc
Programs Director

I’m pleased to announce that we brought our Wheels of Sharing Mobile Food Pantry to Gause, TX last week.

Gause is 90 miles northeast of Austin, in Milam County, population 400. As Fred (the Mobile Pantry driver), Lauren (Social Work intern who provides food stamp assistance) and I left the Food Bank, I shared with them that I didn’t know how many families would come to this distribution in such a small town and on a rainy day. I also said that I was afraid we wouldn’t have any volunteers with the weather conditions. The people of Gause proved me wrong. We had a fantastic, successful first distribution!

In less than an hour, we provided food for 114 families, with help from 20 volunteers. We’re expecting this site to grow to serve more than 200 families each month.

While talking to clients, I learned that families were coming from all over Milam County, including Hearne and Milano. It was pouring rain throughout the distribution, so unfortunately, I was not able to take photos. Here are some photographs of the town, though, to give you an image of the diverse places that exist throughout our service area.

This is Main St., which we drove through on our way to the Community Center where the distribution was held.

The distribution occurred directly behind this cemetery at the Gause Community Center.

With each new Mobile Food Pantry distribution, we serve more and more of our hungry neighbors who do not have easy access to a food pantry. I invite you to share in this amazing experience. To volunteer at a Mobile Food Pantry distribution, click here. I hope to see you soon!

Thanks to Tom Ramsey’s generous donation of a 6,000 square foot building, the Capital Area Food Bank is able to provide more food and client services for families through the Reaching Out Center in Pflugerville and North Austin.

Tom, owner of Snappy Snack Mobile Catering, and his wife, Monica, were already operating a food pantry from his warehouse. Tom says he has a personal connection to those who need help and says he wants people to feel welcome. When client need started to increase, he decided to devote a large portion of the building to serving clients, and offered CAFB the opportunity to assume operations of the food pantry.  

Watch the video to hear what these first-time clients had to say about their experience with hunger.

CAFB is working to turn the Reaching Out Center into a model pantry that all Partner Agencies can learn from, including the addition of the CAFB Self-Sufficiency Program, scheduled to begin in the next few months.

To volunteer at the Reaching Out Center, click here.

 
More than one in three people we serve is a child, and in our new campaign, we declare that “Hunger is Unacceptable.” The campaign, breaking this week on TV, online and in newspapers, shows the real face of hunger in Central Texas and what you can do to help.

We’re directing everyone to www.hungerisUNacceptable.com to view short films about actual Central Texans experiencing hunger.

“These are real people who don’t always know where their next meal will come from. They’re our friends, neighbors, family members, and too often they’re children,” said President & CEO, David Davenport. “Hunger is unacceptable. Especially child hunger. The Food Bank is uniquely positioned to drastically reduce hunger. When our community supports the Food Bank, they are helping nourish their hungry Central Texas neighbors.”

Click here to help us spread the word. Share your vision through Twitter, Facebook, your blog and your website.

Hunger Is UNacceptable. Will you join us?

This campaign was produced with the generous support of a local marketing firm and area media outlets.

Lisa Goddard
Advocay and Online Marketing Director

Congress is listening and acting. Yesterday, the House of Representatives approved HR 2997 which provides hunger relief for families in Texas and across the nation. The $121 billion spending bill temporarily extends expiring provisions of the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act and includes:

• $58.2 billion ($4.2 billion more than last year) for SNAP (Food Stamps)
• $7.3 billion ($400 million more than 2009 non-emergency levels) for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program
• $16.9 billion ($1.9 billion more than last year) for aid to school and child care nutrition programs
• $85 million for pilot summer food service program projects to provide nutritious food to low income children during the summer

The bill passed with wide bi-partisan support of 263 to 162. For those representing our 21-county service area the votes were as follows:

The bill now heads to the Senate for voting, and hopefully to the president to be signed into law. For a detailed list of the improvements headed our way, read the Committee on Education & Labor’s blog post here. 

While you’re still reading this blog, I’ll be sending some hand-written thank you cards to our hunger-fighting representatives.  Please join me in a round of thanks by sending a thank you or giving them a call.  For those who voted against the bill, we clearly have more work ahead of us. 

In other news, the Texas Democratic Congressional Delegation is deeply concerned about the SNAP delays at home and wants the USDA to act. Read the letter below, sent to Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack.