Frequently Asked Questions

Food Recipients | Food Donations | Delivery of Food Drive/Individuals' Donations | Food Handling | Partner Agencies | Feeding and Education Programs | Volunteering | Financial Support | Other Questions

VOLUNTEERING

What kinds of jobs can volunteers do at Tarrant Area Food Bank?

• Ages 16 and up can sort, inspect and repack food in Quality Control.
• Any person of any age tall enough to work at a 34-inch table can come with groups on Wednesday evenings to pack sacks of food for the BackPacks for Kids program.  This program provides food for school children and their siblings who are at risk of hunger over the weekends.
• Ages 16 and up can work on the warehouse docks unloading food product from trucks or helping to load food into vehicles of Partner Agencies.
• Youth groups of kids ages 15 and under can help with a variety of special tasks such as packing sacks for BackPacks for Kids, assembling boxes or helping with mass mailings.
• High school and college students can provide support for a variety of events by helping with tasks such as mass mailings and the physical setup of events.
• Individuals, high-school age and older, can do computer and clerical work.
• Adults and college students can volunteer as chefs, nutrition instructors and grocery shoppers for Operation Frontline classes.
• Adults and teens can sponsor a member of our Fighting Hunger Speakers Bureau to make a presentation to the sponsors' workplaces, churches, youth groups, civic groups and other organizations.
• Adults can join our Fighting Hunger Speakers Bureau and make presentations on behalf of the Food Bank.
• Adults can help produce major fundraising events such as Empty Bowls and ¡Adiós, Hunger!

Is there a minimum age for volunteers?

The minimum age is 16 for working in Quality Control in the warehouse. This is because of moving equipment such as pallet jacks and forklifts. Groups of younger children can help with a variety of special tasks such as assembling boxes or sorting and inserting written materials and labeling envelopes or boxes.

Does Teen Court send kids to the Food Bank?

Teen Court recognizes donation of food and volunteer work done at Tarrant Area Food Bank as community service. The Food Bank also offers volunteer opportunities for:

• Individuals who are ordered by a government court to perform community service, and for
• High school juniors and seniors and college students who perform community service as part of their degree programs.

Can I go online to sign up to volunteer?

You will find information about volunteer opportunities on this site's Volunteer page. For most volunteer jobs you need to call the person indicated on the website. Quality Control volunteer groups must call the Volunteer Coordinator to schedule the particular date and time they will work.

The one time you can sign up for a volunteer job through the web site is in January and February when you can sign up to volunteer for the Empty Bowls luncheon. (Empty Bowls features soups and desserts created by Fort Worth area chefs and bowls made by professional, recreational and student artisans. Guests sample the food and choose bowls to take home.)

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FINANCIAL SUPPORT

Are you state, government or United Way ? No to all three of these. Tarrant Area Food Bank is a private nonprofit supported by foundations, corporations and individuals. The only government money we receive is reimbursement for handling and distributing USDA Commodities and matching funds to provide Food Stamp Nutrition Education to clients of partner agencies. The Food Bank’s only connection to United Way is that during the annual United Way campaign donors may elect to give to one or more charities on a select list of independent charities that includes Tarrant Area Food Bank.

Where does your financial support come from?

The majority of the financial support for Tarrant Area Food Bank includes grants from foundations and corporations, the Shared Maintenance Fee paid by Partner Agencies and donations from individuals and groups.

Why should I write a check to Tarrant Area Food Bank instead of to my local food pantry?

Tarrant Area Food Bank encourages you to support both organizations. Your local food pantry probably would not distribute as much or as nutritious a mix of food if it weren’t a partner with Tarrant Area Food Bank. In turn, without Partner Agencies such as your food pantry, Tarrant Area Food Bank would not be able to distribute the million or more pounds of food it collects each month.

What percentage of my donation goes toward feeding people?

Of the Food Bank’s total annual revenue, including the value of food handled, 97% of that revenue goes toward programs, which includes food distribution, the direct feeding programs for children (Kids Cafes and BackPacks for Kids) nutrition education and the Community Kitchen job training program.

How do we know our monetary donations are being used to feed people and not for administrative costs?

Monetary donations help support all of our operating expenses. Operating expenses include, among other items, staff, warehouse equipment, trucks and fuel, freight charges, insurance, warehouse and office supplies, utilities and computer equipment. Without staff, equipment, utilities and supplies, no food could be received or distributed.

What is the Food Bank’s budget?

The cash budget is around $4 million. By IRS rules we count food received as revenue, which is valued at more than $20 million, thus the revenue budget is generally about 25 million.

How many employees does Tarrant Area Food Bank have? How many work in the warehouse? How many in administration?

The Food Bank has 45 full-time positions of which two-thirds provide direct services either in the warehouse or through programs such as Kids Cafes and the Community Kitchen.

Can I donate online?

Yes. There’s a GIVE NOW button and a "Monetary Donations" link on the home page.

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OTHER QUESTIONS

What geographical area does the Food Bank serve?

Tarrant Area Food Bank’s service region stretches from the Red River on the North to nearly Waco on the South and out to Mineral Wells and Stephenville on the West. This area includes the 13 counties of Cooke (on the Red River), Denton, Wise, Tarrant, Johnson, Parker, Palo Pinto (Mineral Wells), Erath (Stephenville), Hood, Somervell, Hamilton, Bosque and Hill (almost Waco).

How successful is Tarrant Area Food Bank in its fight against hunger? Is the Food Bank ending hunger in our area?

Fighting hunger is an ongoing battle as the population grows and the economy expands and contracts. Tarrant Area Food Bank and its network of Partner Agencies are providing groceries to more than 35,000 households a month and serving more than 500,000 meals and snacks a month. The more donations of food, funds and volunteer time the Food Bank receives, the more food it can distribute to those Partner Agencies.

Isn’t the food bank part of the problem if all it does is give away food for free? What are you doing to help people support themselves so they don’t depend on charity?

Tarrant Area Food Bank offers several programs that directly or indirectly help people help themselves:

• Operation Frontline provides nutrition education and food preparation classes specifically designed to teach families how to obtain sufficient nutrition on a low-income budget.
• The Food Bank’s Food Stamp Outreach Coordinator is available to Partner Agencies to explain to clients the benefits of food stamps and to help them apply for the program. Food assistance recipients who utilize food stamps can make their own independent selections of foods rather than just accepting whatever donated food the local private food pantry offers. Also, food pantries are usually open only during regular business hours. A single mom who works usually can’t take time to go the local food pantry. With food stamps, she can go to the grocery store any time.
• Kids Cafes serve prepared meals in after-school programs to provide sufficient nourishment for impoverished children so they can focus on learning.
• BackPacks for Kids help children develop normally and be ready for school by providing food over the weekends.
• The Community Kitchen offers culinary job training for low-income adults seeking a career earning more than minimum wage.

What is your rating by Charity Navigator? (Why is your rating by Charity Navigator so low?)

The overall rating by Charity Navigator is based on two major components: Efficiency and Capacity. We consistently maintain a 97% efficiency rate, which received the highest possible ranking of four-stars every year that Charity Navigator has rated Tarrant Area Food Bank. For two consecutive fiscal years, 2002-2003 and 2003-2004, our efficiency and capacity ratings combined earned Tarrant Area Food Bank and overall rating of four stars, the highest rating.

The fall in our ratings for fiscal years 2004-05 and 2005-06 reflects what Charity Navigator considers a lack of growth in services and thus a decreasing capacity. In the capacity category, the only service Charity Navigator measures for food banks is the amount of food distributed. It does not evaluate nutrition education programs such as Operation Frontline, special feeding programs such as Kids Cafes or BackPacks for Kids, or Community Kitchen programs, all of which we have been developing or expanding the past few years.

In recent years, Tarrant Area Food Bank has had difficulty obtaining ever greater amounts of donated food, partly because we consistently insist on accepting primarily donations of high nutritional value, rather than any and all donations offered. An added deterrent has been the rising cost of fuel, which reduces the distances from which we can afford to bring product.

In addition, as the food industry has adjusted to consumer demand for more frozen and fresh foods and fewer canned goods, more of the foods donated are frozen rather than canned. Many of our partner agencies do not yet have the capacity to handle increased amounts of frozen product and prefer to buy canned goods at retail prices rather than pick up frozen foods from us. We are developing strategies to help our partner agencies handle more frozen product.

Another factor affecting our growth in food distribution compared to other food banks is that we do not yet have a large perishable food rescue program. We are in the process of developing a greater number of perishable food donors such as restaurants and grocery stores.

Are you the food bank that burned? No, that was Metropolex Food Bank.

Didn’t you have to throw away a whole lot of food when your freezer broke down a while back?

Tarrant Area Food Bank has never had to throw out food because of a broken freezer. It was Metropolex Food Bank that had to do that.

I saw something on your website about recycling. What can you take and where do I bring it?

The recycling bin, or Paper Retriever™, at Tarrant Area Food Bank can take newspapers, and papers and publications from your home, office and school. Please do not donate cardboard boxes to this bin. The green and yellow Paper Retriever™ is located on the east side of the Food Bank parking lot and has a round logo with a dog pictured. The Food Bank is at 2600 Cullen Street in a business park on the north side of White Settlement Road between Henderson and University.

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ABOUT US: Who We Are | Our Affiliations | Our History | Board of Directors | Fast Facts | Frequently Asked Questions

WHO WE HELP: Who Is Hungry | Who We Serve | Service Area Map

HOW WE HELP:  What We Do  |  Food Distribution  |  Special Programs

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