North Texas food banks worry about demand for several years to come due to pandemic

FORT WORTH, Texas - Thousands of cars filled the parking lot of Herman Clark Stadium in Fort Worth for the final Tarrant Area Food Bank Mega mobile market of the year.

Many of the families sought help from a food pantry this holiday season for the first time.

As the year ends, there is an extra worry and work for those in charge of feeding our area's hungry and vulnerable. 

Even with the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, food banks are anticipating the economic crisis and increased demand for food to continue for two to three more years.

One young woman who did not want to give her name is among the many impacted by the pandemic.

"My father has reduced hours," she said. "My mom is working. I go to food drives for her."

The food drive could fill an important gap for her family of six.

Patricia Chism also waited in line for more than an hour and a half.

"It helps us keep food on the table: milk, cheese, potatoes, vegetable," she said.

Chism plans to share some of her donation with her neighbors who have young children.

"If this wasn’t going on, I don't think anyone in these lines would be able to survive."

The TAFB says before the pandemic, it distributed 600,000 meals a week. Now, there is a need for 1 million meals.

"We found almost 50 % of clients since March when the pandemic began had never visited a food bank and never thought they would," said TAFB Executive VP Stephen Raeside.

And in the middle of the pandemic, a government program that supplied fresh produce to food banks unrelated to COVID is set to end.

Raeside he and his staff are sometimes kept up at night trying to plan for how to fill the ever-growing need. 

"No one budgets for a pandemic. We never anticipated this pandemic would last this long," he said. "We’re very worried about next year. A lot of government benefits like unemployment are going to come to an end."

The TAFB is not just seeing people who were laid off. Many are working but can't get enough hours to feed their families.