North Texas Food Bank buying new fleet to help meet growing demand
DALLAS - Food insecurity in North Texas has grown some 5% since last year.
To put the need in perspective, the CEO of the North Texas Food Bank said the number of people that the nonprofit is serving could fill Globe Life Field 16 times.
A new fleet of trucks and trailers is helping meet demand.
Lines of cars filled with people waiting to pick up donated food have become an all-too-common scene in North Texas.
According to Trisha Cunningham, the CEO of the NTFB, the 13 county-area the nonprofit serves has the fourth highest number of people who are food insecure.
"We have a big responsibility to make sure that people are fed in our community and we're so grateful for the grant dollars we were able to use to ensure we are able to continue to do that," Cunningham said.
At a news conference held at the Perot Family Campus in Plano Wednesday, Cunningham said the nonprofit received $12 million in federal grant money.
Those funds are being used to buy a new fleet of trucks and trailers, replacing its aging leased fleet.
The funds will also pay for a mobile office called the SNAP Mobile, four refrigerated produce pods, and two container pantries that can hold up to 3,000 pounds of food.
"We’ve never owned our own fleet. We've never had our own cash to do that," Cunningham said.
North Texas Food Bank volunteers spread the love on Valentine's Day
The North Texas Food Bank is holding several free food distributions this week.
Cunningham said the NTFB has doubled distribution in the past five years. That's how much the need for donated food has gone up.
She added that they're continuing to see needs higher than even during the pandemic right now due to ongoing inflation and layoffs.
The new, larger fleet of vehicles will allow them to get more food to the some 500 pantries the organization serves, and quicker says one driver.
"The drive I make is pretty long every week, about 50 minutes to an hour every location," one NTFB driver said.
A third of those who are food insecure in the community are children.
The NTFB currently provides 400,000 meals per day.
Cunningham doesn't see the need letting up anytime soon.
"To put in perspective, the number of people that we're serving, it could fill Globe Life Field 16 times," she added.