Hundreds line up at Fort Worth mega-mobile market for food assistance

FORT WORTH, Texas - The need for food assistance remains extremely high even as the economy recovers from the pandemic. 

The Tarrant Area Food Bank held its mega-mobile market Wednesday at Herman Clark Stadium in Fort Worth. Hundreds of cars lined up for fresh food.

While the economy has shown signs of improvement, the delta variant is putting a strain on recovery. There is still a large group of people who are just getting by week to week.

From high above, SKY 4 captured how big of a need there still is a year and a half into the pandemic. 

"I haven't needed it until now," said Linda Miser. "My son lost his job because of the pandemic. Trying to find another one."

The TAFB is now doing mobile food distributions every Wednesday at Herman Clark Stadium. It changed the hours to evenings in order to meet the needs of working North Texans.

Last week, it gave our food to 800 people. This week, hundreds of cars snaked around the parking lot hours before the event started. 

Organizers say they continue to see increases in families who rely on food bank services, some for the first time.

The food bank says on average it’s handing out about a million meals per week among the 13 counties it serves.

For many, Wednesday was their second, third and even fifth time getting assistance. 

"If it wasn’t for this here, I would have been dead a long time ago," said David Landreth.

"Thank God that they are here," Miser said. "I pray for all these people out here to be safe and honor them."

For Barbara Martin, she knows the impact of the pandemic from a financial and health experience. 

"My daughter-in-law, she was in the hospital for 55 days on a ventilator," she said. ‘We didn't know if she was going to live or die. Our prayers were answered. I pray every day and every morning for everyone in the hospital with this virus."