Michael Hetrick, Author at East Texas Food Bank

Pandemic causing spike in food insecurity

One of the effects of COVID-19 pandemic is a rise in food insecurity.

As a result, East Texas non-profits like the East Texas Food Bank have held distribution events to help feed those in need during this uncertain time.

Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, the CEO of the non-profit Feeding America, visited Tyler Friday for a distribution event. She says the East Texas Food Bank is a model organization for other food banks around the country.
(Read and watch from KYTX CBS19)

New USDA benefit to help provide food to families with children that have temporarily lost access to free or reduced-price school meals

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Because of school closures from COVID-19, Texas received approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide more than $1 billion in pandemic food benefits to families with children that have temporarily lost access to free or reduced-price school meals.

Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) provides eligible families with a one-time payment for each child who previously received free or reduced-price meals. P-EBT works the same way Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits do and will help families get the food they need during the current pandemic. P-EBT will be administered by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, Texas Department of Agriculture and Texas Education Agency.

Here are some key points about this program:

Families will receive a one-time benefit of approximately $285 per eligible child.
Families currently participating in SNAP with kids ages 5-18 will have the benefits added to their Lonestar cards by May 22nd.
No application is needed.
Families on SNAP with kids under age 5 or ages 19-21, and families that are not on SNAP will receive a letter from their school district by May 31 with instructions to enroll in P-EBT via a simple, online application. After enrolling online, families will receive an EBT card with those benefits as soon as their applications are processed.
Getting this one-time benefit will not affect a family’s eligibility for other benefits.
P-EBT is available to families regardless of immigration status. Getting this one-time benefit will not keep a family member from getting a green card.

P-EBT will help essential workers and their families- like Melynda’s.

“I have two school-aged children. I was only able to get the curb-side lunches for my kids two days total because I work at Walgreens and I work almost non-stop during this pandemic,” Melynda said. “I just checked and got my P-EBT today. Very excited about them giving us the max amount plus this “bonus”. I feel like for once, my pantry and freezer will be full. I normally get $400/ month on SNAP. I ration that out and go shopping once a week. If I try to go for the whole month, with teenage boys in the house, they see food, they eat it. But for once, they can have snacks and such.”

Increase in need continues for April as ETFB responds to COVID-19 affected families

In April, we continued our emergency response to COVID-19. We provided over 2.4 million meals (which is 42% increase from April 2019!) to East Texas children, families and seniors in need.

With support from the Texas Army National Guard, we continued our emergency drive-thru distributions, Senior Box Home Delivery program and provided even more support to our partner agencies.

Watch the video above to see the impact the food assistance has on our East Texas neighbors.

If you are able, here are the most essential ways you can support our work and help provide one less worry for our neighbors:

Donate. Thanks to our wholesale buying power, every dollar you donate provides even more meals for our hungry neighbors. Donate here.
Crowdfund. Any person, business, organization or group can host a virtual food drive to benefit the East Texas Food Bank! We can customize a crowdfunding page with your information and goal. Click here to learn more.
Volunteer. Our Volunteer Center is currently by appointment only and we’ve implemented additional sanitation and social distancing measures. The Texas Governor’s office has deemed food banks as a critical infrastructure industry and we’re allowed to stay open. Learn more here.
Amplify. We need your voice to help share our message. You can stay updated on our work and share our message to your network across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Your support means that access to a nutritious meal is one less worry for our neighbors in need.

Volunteers are essential to helping during COVID-19, year-round

It’s Volunteer Appreciation Week! Year-round, our volunteers demonstrate their commitment to fighting hunger and feeding hope by working to get food into the hands of our the families we serve.

The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us how influential volunteers are to the East Texas Food Bank and we are so appreciative of their continued support.

Just last year, over 15,000 volunteer shifts logged more than 44,000, helping us provide 21.3 million meals.

Volunteers can help in a variety of ways and are always welcome during our volunteer hours. Normal volunteer opportunities include: repacking rice, beans and pastas, helping pack boxes for our BackPack and Senior Box programs, inspecting and sorting food items and helping with administrative duties in the office.

Volunteers have also been critical in our COVID-19 emergency response. The community has stepped up to help us back and distribute emergency food boxes through drive-thru events and delivering them to homebound seniors.

The East Texas Food Bank’s best work is only possible because of the dedication of thousands of people who together volunteer thousands of hours of their time.

To learn more about volunteering with us, please click here.

Weekly drive-thru distributions continue

In response to COVID-19, the East Texas Food Bank is holding a weekly drive-thru emergency food box distribution. We will be distributing emergency food boxes and fresh items (such as milk, produce and meat when available). The distributions will be at the East Texas State Fairgrounds every Friday from 10 am-12pm (while supplies last through the end of May.

The boxes are an added layer on top of the 21.3 million meals ETFB distributes every year. The boxes contain shelf-stable groceries such as dried beans, rice, pasta and canned meat, fruits and vegetables. Each box will provide items for 16 meals.

To receive a free box, community members just need to provide their name and address. There are no eligibility requirements or identification needed. It’s a drive-thru distribution, so please stay in your car and follow the traffic control guidance from the Tyler PD.

Multiple households can ride together. Each adult in the car will need to provide their name and address for the separate households. To pick up a box for someone who isn’t present, they will need to provide a written note with their household name, address, name of the person picking up the food for them and their signature.

Any family seeking food assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic can click “Find Food” at the top of this page to find the closest resources near them.

If you want to financially support our work, please give at EastTexasFoodBank.org/DonateNow.

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En respuesta a COVID-19, el East Texas Food Bank está haciendo una distribución semanal de cajas de alimentos de emergencia. La ETFB distribuirá cajas de alimentos de emergencia y artículos frescos (como leche, productos y carne, cuando estén disponibles). Las distribuciones serán en el recinto ferial del East Texas todos los viernes de 10 am-12pm (mientras duren los suministros).

Las cajas son una capa añadida enlaciendo los 21,3 millones de comidas que ETFB distribuye cada año. Las cajas contienen alimentos estables en estanterías, como frijoles secos, arroz, pasta y carne enlatada, frutas y verduras. Cada caja incluye artículos para 16 comidas.

Para recibir una caja gratuita, los miembros de la comunidad solo necesitan proporcionar su nombre y dirección. No se necesitan requisitos de elegibilidad ni identificación. Es una distribución, así que por favor quédese en su auto y siga las instrucciones de control de tráfico de la policía de Tyler.

Varios hogares pueden viajar juntos. Cada adulto en el coche tendrá que proporcionar su nombre y dirección para los hogares separados. Para recoger una caja para alguien que no está presente, tendrá que presentar una nota escrita con su nombre de familia, dirección, nombre de la persona que recoge la comida para ellos y su firma.

Cualquier familia que busque ayuda alimentaria durante la pandemia COVID-19 puede visitar www.EastTexasFoodBank.org y hacer clic en “encontrar alimentos” para obtener información sobre los recursos alimentarios más cercanos.