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

PARTNER AGENCIES

What eligibility criteria do the Food Bank’s Partner Agencies use to determine who should receive food? (How does the food bank decide who is eligible to receive food?)

Tarrant Area Food Bank requires only that a Partner Agency serve people in need. The Food Bank lets Partner Agencies set their own criteria for food assistance since they know their communities better than the Food Bank does. The one exception is the distribution of USDA Commodities. The U.S. Department of Agriculture requires that people receiving commodities meet certain income eligibility criteria.

How can a charity/agency become a partner/get food from Tarrant Area Food Bank?

To receive food from Tarrant Area Food Bank, an organization must become a Partner Agency. An eligible partner is a charity that is recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization or as a church and is located within our 13-county service region. If the charity is outside our region, it can work with the regional Second Harvest Food Bank serving that other region.

The charity needs to explore whether and how other hunger-relief programs are already serving residents in their area, and have its own plan for feeding people. The plan needs to include the geographic area to be served, the type of feeding program (meals, snacks or a pantry), financial capacity to pay the shared maintenance fee charged all partner agencies, and where, when and who will carry out the program. Then the charity’s representatives should see Tarrant Area Food Bank’s Agency Services Manager ( Lori Pope, 817-332-9177, ext.102).

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).

I’ve heard that agencies have to pay for food they get from Tarrant Area Food Bank. Is this true?

Not exactly. Partner Agencies pay a Shared Maintenance Fee to share in the costs of procuring and distributing food by sharing in the ongoing costs of operating Tarrant Area Food Bank as a distribution center. The Shared Maintenance Fee ranges from one cent per pound to a maximum of 18 cents per pound for all products except fresh breads and dairy products, which are free. The maximum amount for the Shared Maintenance Fee is set by America ’s Second Harvest—The Nation’s Food Bank Network, to which Tarrant Area Food Bank belongs.

The exception to this explanation is the Food Bank’s Cooperative Food Purchase Program. Partner Agencies can choose to access selected items by paying the actual bulk-rate price paid by Tarrant Area Food B ank plus a 2- to 3-cent Shared Maintenance Fee. This program supplies primarily those high-protein foods and canned goods that are difficult to obtain as donations.

Do Partner Agencies pass on the Shared Maintenance Fee to food recipients?

No. Partner Agencies are required to sign a document stating that the individuals they serve will NOT be charged a fee for the food they receive in the form of cooked meals, snacks or emergency groceries.

Is it okay for church food pantries that get food from TAFB to offer prayer and other religious services to people who come to the pantries?

Partner Agencies may offer religious services to food recipients, but participation in religious activities can not be required as a condition for receiving food assistance.

Does Tarrant Area Food Bank ever kick an agency out of the network (stop serving an agency)?

Tarrant Area Food Bank always works with its partners to help them meet the Food Bank’s standards of operation. If they cannot or will not meet these standards, then the Food Bank has to end the partnership. This rarely happens.

The Food Bank may temporarily suspend service to an agency for:

(1) Failing to send a monthly report of the number of people served after the regular deadline has been extended for that agency for that month. The monthly report of the number of people served gives Tarrant Area Food Bank critical information for planning, budgeting and submitting grant requests.  Or,

(2) Being 60 or more days late in paying its Shared Maintenance Fees, which are billed monthly. When an agency is 60 or more days behind in paying their Shared Maintenance Fees, the Food Bank becomes concerned that the agency may be having financial problems. The Agency Services Manager works with the agency to resolve the problem.

Why should we donate food to Tarrant Area Food Bank instead of our local food pantry?

Tarrant Area Food Bank encourages you to support both of us. What the Food Bank can do that your local pantry probably can’t, is to sort, inspect and re-pack huge quantities of food ranging from10,000 pounds collected by a school to more than 100,000 pounds donated by City of Fort Worth employees or collected in the letter carriers’ annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive.

Donations from individuals and groups to Tarrant Area Food Bank also contribute to a varied mix of canned and boxed food that helps all agencies provide an adequate level of nutrition to food recipients. All partner agencies have access to food donated to Tarrant Area Food Bank.

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FEEDING AND EDUCATION PROGRAMS

What is the BackPack program?

BackPacks for Kids sends impoverished school children home each Friday with backpacks of nonperishable, kid-friendly food for the weekend for all the school-aged children in the students’ homes.

What can we do to help the BackPacks for Kids program?

1) You can donate kid-friendly nonperishable food packaged as single servings.

2) You and your group can volunteer on Wednesday evenings to pack food for the backpacks.

3) You can donate funds to help pay for backpacks and food.

What does it cost to run the BackPack program?

The average cost of running a BackPacks for Kids program for nine months is $112 per child. Most sites serve 30 to 40 children plus their school-aged siblings for an average of 115 children per site. That’s an average of about $13,000 per site.

How can my local school get a BackPack program?

The elementary or middle school must have a high percentage of students eligible for the National School Breakfast and Lunch program of free and reduced-cost meals. For information, your school counselor or principal can contact our Food for Kids Coordinator ( Denae Daugherty , 817-332-9177, ext.124; denae.daugherty@tafb.org). The primary restriction for Tarrant Area Food Bank in establishing the program at new sites is funding. So far, the Food Bank is paying the greater cost for the BackPacks for Kids program out of its operating budget.

What is the Kids Cafe program?

Kids Cafes serve prepared meals in locations that are safe, accessible and convenient for children at risk of hunger. Tarrant Area Food Bank partners with agencies providing tutoring, mentoring, life-skills, recreational or daycare programs for children at scheduled times.  A Kids Cafe can serve breakfast, lunch or dinner.

How can an agency get a Kids Cafe?

To host a Kids Cafe, an agency must be a nonprofit, have a kitchen and be providing tutoring, mentoring, life-skills, recreational or other programs for children at scheduled times. Right now, all of the Food Bank’s Kids Cafes provide meals in the late afternoon, but a Kids Cafe could serve breakfast or lunch. For a time, until the agency closed, the Food Bank sponsored a Kids Cafe that served lunch as part of a Saturday program. For information about the Kids Cafe program, an agency can contact our Food for Kids Coordinator ( Denae Daugherty , 817-332-9177, ext.124; denae.daugherty@tafb.org). The primary restriction for Tarrant Area Food Bank in establishing a Kids Cafe at an additional site is funding. So far, Capital One has been our primary and very generous financial sponsor of Kids Cafes.

What does it cost to run a Kids Cafe?

The annual cost is about $183 per child. The number of children served at each of the Food Bank’s 18 sites ranges from 20 to 180.

The Food Bank seems to feed children during the school year, but what about during the summer?

During the summer, the Food Bank arranges for any Kids Cafe host agency that is open during the summer to receive meals for its Kids Cafe either through the local city’s Summer Feeding Program or through the Sodexho Feeding the Future program. Sodexho is the nation’s largest provider of school meals.

I thought nutrition was taught in school. Why is the food bank doing it?

Tarrant Area Food Bank offers nutrition education programs specifically for individuals and families receiving food assistance from its network of partner agencies. This includes adults and children. The Operation Frontline courses are taught in a kitchen and are specifically designed to teach families how to obtain sufficient nutrition on a low-income budget.

What is the Community Kitchen?

The Community Kitchen is a free, culinary job training program for low-income adults who want a career paying more than minimum wage. Along with their culinary training, all students are coached in life-skills by a career developer through a contract with The Women’s Center of Tarrant County. Some of the students may be unemployed, homeless or temporarily dependent on welfare.

Community Kitchen students participate in 12 weeks of hands-on classes taught in the kitchen by a professional chef. As the students work to achieve their own self-sufficiency, they also serve the community by producing meals for Kids Cafes and for students at East Fort Worth Montessori Academy where the Community Kitchen is housed.

Each student then works in an unpaid internship in a commercial or institutional kitchen. They graduate with basic culinary skills that are needed in restaurants, catering services, hospitals, schools and other food service settings.

How many people have graduated from the Community Kitchen?

As of July 2007, nine students had graduated and a third class had started.

How can we help with the Community Kitchen?

Volunteer chefs are needed to give demonstrations, and commercial and institutional food operations are needed to provide internships for students.

To volunteer and/or for information about student applications and other aspects of the Community Kitchen, contact Lylette Pharr, Director of Community Outreach, at 817-332-9177, ext.118.

In addition, funds from individuals, businesses and other groups are needed to continue this program. For details, call the Food Bank’s Development Office at 817-332-9177.

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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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