Celebrate the generous volunteers, food donors, and financial donors who support Tarrant Area Food Bank and have helped increase our capacity to serve so many communities.

Educate the residents of our 13-county service region about local hunger and the roles they can play to help the Food Bank fight this scourge. Together, we can fight hunger with Food, Friends and Funds .

Friday, September 28, 2007, is our 25th Anniversary Birthday Celebration at our warehouse near downtown and featuring a before-dinner reception with tours of our distribution center, dinner catered by Reata Restaurant and live entertainment from 6 to 9 p.m. in our warehouse. Dress is casual and valet parking will be available. Tickets can be purchased online or by calling 817-332-9177, ext. 110.

How serious a problem is hunger in our 13-county region?

Every day one in seven children and their families are at serious risk of hunger.

More than 92,000 children in the Food Bank’s service region live in extreme poverty—in households with incomes below the federal poverty level (an annual income of no more than $20,000 for a family of four).

More than 250,000 residents in our region live in extreme poverty. Another 300,000 live in households that earn less than the Dallas / Fort Worth region’s basic cost of living.

According to a 2005 national and regional survey, more than one-third of those 550,000 residents sought food assistance from hunger-relief charities served by Tarrant Area Food Bank. They included low-wage workers and their families, senior citizens and disabled individuals on fixed incomes, victims of abuse and of natural disasters, the homeless and the temporarily unemployed.

How does Tarrant Area Food Bank lead the fight against hunger?

Each month, Tarrant Area Food Bank provides donated food to 300 nonprofit programs and agencies in the 13 counties of Tarrant, Johnson, Hood, Parker, Denton, Cooke, Wise, Palo Pinto, Erath, Somervell, Bosque, Hamilton, and Hill.

Our network of hunger-relief charities consists of pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters for abuse victims and the homeless, low-income daycare centers, senior centers, children’s homes, after-school programs and our own Kids Cafes and BackPacks for Kids feeding programs.

Each month, our network provides groceries to an average of 35,000 households and serves some 500,000 meals and snacks on their own sites.

We collect food donations from the community, and rescue food from commercial food donors who, otherwise, would discard their surplus product. At our 69,000 square-foot warehouse, we depend on volunteers to inspect and re-pack the donated food.

Our Choices and Operation Frontline nutrition programs provide guidance and direction about nutrition, dietary planning, and food preparation options to groups and individuals of all ages.

Our Community Kitchen provides basic culinary job training for low-income adults seeking employment in a career track earning more than minimum wage.

Educational efforts generate grassroots advocacy for the fight against local hunger. We offer Hunger 101 role-playing workshops to help participants experience what it's like to be chronically hungry and to face the obstacles to obtaining sufficient nutrition.

To what extent do Tarrant Area Food Bank programs address child hunger?

More than one-third (35 percent) of the people served by Tarrant Area Food Bank and its network of partner agencies are children. 

Many children must rely on subsidized meals in school districts within the 13 counties served by Tarrant Area Food Bank. Of the total school enrollment in those counties, 41 percent (203,000) of students qualify for free and reduced-cost national breakfast and lunch programs. 

Tarrant Area Food Bank directly fills the gap that exists for such children with after-school meals in Kids Cafes, backpacks of food for weekends, and, during the summer, a select number of Kids Cafes and extra food for families with school-aged children.

With $1.00, Tarrant Area Food Bank can provide food for 4-1/2 to 5 meals.

Over 97 percent of our revenue, which includes the value of food received, goes to programs.

Tarrant Area Food Bank is a long-time member of America’s Second Harvest—the Nation’s Food Bank Network, which is the largest organization in the United States addressing domestic hunger. 

We are in full compliance with America’s Second Harvest standards of operation and performance for quality control, food handling, warehouse management, and financial responsibility.

Financial support from thousands of individual donors, community groups and our region's major foundations and employers.

Thousands of hours of service by hundreds of volunteers from throughout our service region.

Food and fund drives by more than 500 area corporations, other businesses and civic, professional, educational, social and faith-based organizations as well as with food donations from hundreds of commercial food operations.