Summer may be a time to kick back for some, but for others it’s a period of struggle in terms of food insecurity.
Part of the difficultly are things like inflation, which hits everything from groceries to utilities.
West Texas Food Bank Chief Executive Officer Libby Campbell said it is also the time when food banks are most in need, especially in the 19 counties and 34,000 square miles the agency serves.
This time of year, there are lots of children who don’t have the free and reduced breakfast and lunch. Ector County and Midland ISDs and IDEA Public Schools have set up feeding sites around the area and the food bank steps in to fill in the gaps.
“The lowest point of donations right now for the West Texas Food Bank is always during the summer, but it is our highest point especially with childhood hunger and elderly hunger,” Campbell said.
The food bank has opened 13 sites that are open for the Kids Cafe. There are school pantries open for families and Food 2 Kids backpacks available through different locations.
“We’ve seen a huge increase in our drive-throughs here at the Odessa and Midland campus of the West Texas Food Bank. We’re seeing lots of elderly grandparents this summer who are having to take care of their grandbabies while their parents are going to work. … The cost of groceries, the cost of daycare has all gone up. Our families are working, but more family members are having to lean in to help get things done,” Campbell said.
She noted that seniors who are already on fixed income and have limited resources are having to feed grandchildren during the summer. There is also the expense of sending children to camp, an expense people wouldn’t have during the school year.
For the Kids’ Cafe, there are two chefs on staff and a kitchen manager.
“We prepare hot meals every day during the school year. We usually do about 450-500 kiddos a day. We do it through the Boys and Girls Clubs, low-income housing. During the summer, we can expand those sites … I think last week we were over 1,000 kids a day is what we were feeding. We’re definitely seeing a huge increase in need,” Campbell said.
Then there is the current heat dome covering Texas, which she noted is bound to increase utility bills.
“It definitely is going to affect what people are going be able to spend on food, so we’re expecting to see another increase of kiddos that are needing resources coming along with the high cost of just utilities right now in West Texas,” Campbell said.
She noted that people have always been generous with the food bank.
“We’re really blessed that we have been able to expand our Kids Cafe program. We work with the ISDs (Independent School Districts) to make sure we have school pantries open, but we still need help,” Campbell said.
“We’re purchasing more food than we’ve ever had to purchase. This year, we’re on track to do close to 14 million pounds of food distributed to those 19 counties. … Before COVID, we were about at 6.5, 6.8 million pounds. (At) the peak of COVID, I think we got a little bit over 10 million pounds of food and we have continued to see a steady increase since COVID,” Campbell said.
A year ago, Bloomberg News reported that this area had the highest inflation rate in the country, which created a “huge” amount of need.
When Campbell started 11 years ago, the food bank distributed 3 million pounds of food a year. They are going to finish somewhere between 13.5 and 14 million pounds of food this year.
“We do have some immigration stuff that’s happening. We do have those families that have come here that have been seeking asylum, so those are putting stress on all resources within our community. And now we have a heat dome, so again, there are lots of things that are out of our control. We are having to spend more, just like our families are on their grocery bill. We are spending so much more on purchased food,” Campbell said.
“We were extremely lucky that during COVID and a couple of years after that, the United States government had a lot of stimulus packages that they put out that really did help food banks and they helped our restaurant industry and our agriculture industry because there’s lots of food that wasn’t going to restaurants that was available on the market. USDA came in, got those commodities for us, and they handed those out to the food banks. That really did help our stress … as quickly as we saw the increases,” she added.
Now they have lost that support.
“But what’s sad is you know, a majority of the food banks especially across the state of Texas, we have seen a 20 to 30% even from last year. … That comes back to inflation; that comes back to cost of living; groceries, utilities, fuel,” Campbell said.
All of this is contributing to a perfect storm. Campbell said they are seeing more children who are food insecure and although unemployment is low, wages haven’t kept up and more family members are having to work to help make ends meet.
Campbell added that the school district is doing a great job of feeding children this summer and she commended the school districts for seeing the need and working with the food bank to meet those needs.
“Every place they can have a feeding site open, they (do). We’ve tried to pick different locations where there may be a hole like Boys and Girls Clubs, some low-income housing, some parks, libraries,” she added.
The food bank is trying to offer food in areas where schools aren’t open or where it’s a long way to a school to help cut down on fuel expenses.
The food bank has gone through three building projects and built a location in Midland and they are expanding the Odessa campus.
The food bank is also known for its disaster relief whether it’s hurricanes, fires, freezes or floods.
“We’ve had a voice and a farm bill, and we continue to have a voice in the current farm bill, to see our growth and to live through a global pandemic — these are things that are completely out of our control. They’re hard to forecast. It’s hard to say when it will end, when does it stop? If you ask me about a hurricane, I can tell you what three months of disaster response is going to look like. What we do the first day from when a hurricane hits, even so far from the coast, adding resources and support to our sister food banks on the coast, and how our community can truly make a huge impact on those kinds of disasters. But I feel like over the last three years, we’re in this continuous cycle of, well, we’ve never seen this before, and we don’t know what this will look like. When will this end,” Campbell said.
She added that it seems like they just keep facing these historic crises.
Because of this, the food bank needs help whether it’s in time or treasure. One in eight children in this area are food insecure and the food bank can provide 10 meals for $5.
The best way to contribute to the West Texas Food Bank is to visit the website.
“There’s a donate and volunteer button to show shifts and how they can register to volunteer. Our social media platforms are very active, so whether you’re a TikToker or an Instagramer or you’re still on Facebook Live livin’ the dream, you could definitely get on there and click and it’ll take you to places to donate and volunteer, or see the landscape of the story we’re telling the clients we are serving,” Campbell said.
She added that the food bank doesn’t ask for help very often. They conducted a “pretty aggressive, quiet capital campaign last year” that raised about $12.6 million.
They will have an agriculture education garden with a $375,000 donation from 1PointFive, a carbon capture plant going in near Notrees.
Onyx is the construction company and Parkhill is the architect.
“We’re adding two new warehouses connected to our current facility. There’ll be dry capacity storage. This facility was originally designed 10 years ago to do about 10 million pounds of food a year. We plan on 3 or 4% growth. We didn’t plan on a global pandemic, or the highest inflation in 40 years,” she said.
They are going to build a separate 10,000-square-foot volunteer center.
“We’ll have a fancy drive-thru for our senior clients and also protect our staff with awnings and misters. We’ll have a small dog park area for our clients. … Lots of our seniors who come and see us bring their pets with them, so we’ll have an area for them,” Campbell said.
