News from 2007

GIFT BENEFITS COMMUNITY KITCHEN, FRESH FOOD RESCUE, KIDS CAFES

HOLIDAY FOOD DRIVE DONATIONS DOWN

STAR-TELEGRAM COLUMNIST:  COMMUNITY KITCHEN PROGRAM CHANGES LIVES

FARM BILL STALLS, AMERICANS AND FOOD BANKS SUFFER

TARRANT AREA FOOD BANK TEACHES COOKING, LIFE SKILLS (CBS11)

COMMUNITY KITCHEN SPOTLIGHTED ON NBC5

INDIAN PRINCESSES, FOOD BANK ON FOX 4 "HOMETOWN HEROES"

FILLING ALL THOSE PLATES

Hungry Texans needing food assistance would benefit greatly from a 2007 farm bill that will be debated Monday [Nov. 5, 2007] on the Senate floor. The proposed legislation would boost dwindling inventories at privately funded food banks ... [Opinion column by Tarrant Area Food Bank Executive Director and submitted to Star-Telegram.]

FOOD PANTRIES FEEL THE PINCH OF RISING COSTS (This link will take you out of this website and to the Star-Telegram for a story by staff writer Traci Shurley published Monday, Nov. 5, 2007.)

CANSTRUCTION® 2007 AWARDS ANNOUNCED

FEAST FOR THE EYES, FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY:  CANSTRUCTION® 2007

TARRANT AREA FOOD BANK TO CELEBRATE 25TH BIRTHDAY AT HOME

TARRANT AREA FOOD BANK THEN AND NOW

LOCAL RADIO ANNOUNCER HELPS WITH FOOD BANK VIDEO

NUTRITION EDUCATION CHANGES BEHAVIOR

THE ECONOMIC COST OF DOMESTIC HUNGER

TARRANT AREA FOOD BANK TO KICK OFF 25TH ANNIVERSARY (June 5 & 7, 2007)

NBC5i.com sponsors story: Tarrant Area Food Bank Fights Hunger

TAFB OPENS FIRST COMMUNITY KITCHEN IN TARRANT COUNTY

(January 2007)

BACKPACKS FOR KIDS OPENS IN ARLINGTON AND HALTOM CITY

(January 2007)

Current Food Bank News               Quarterly Newsletter

NEWS RELEASE

Tarrant Area Food Bank Community Kitchen, Fresh Food Rescue and Kids Cafes to benefit from $100,000 grant from Beaumont Foundation of America

FORT WORTH, TX (December 13, 2007) – Teaching culinary skills to jobless adults and rescuing fresh food from restaurants and grocers have been given a boost with a $100,000 grant from the Beaumont Foundation of America based in Beaumont, Texas.

"This generous gift from the Beaumont Foundation will enable us to expand our Community Kitchen and our Fresh Foods Rescue program and ultimately increase the number of meals we can produce for our Kids Cafe feeding program,” said Bo Soderbergh, Tarrant Area Food Bank executive director.

“More Community Kitchen students and more rescued food will mean that meals can be produced for future Kids Cafes hosted by agencies that don’t have kitchens,” Soderbergh said. The current 18 Kids Cafes supervised by Tarrant Area Food Bank are situated with agencies that prepare the meals in their own kitchens.

The grant to Tarrant Area Food Bank is part of a total $1.1 million the Beaumont Foundation is dispersing to the 18 regional food banks in Texas that are affiliates of America’s Second Harvest—The Nation’s Food Bank Network.

The Beaumont Foundation grant to Texas food banks comes at a time when Texas has the third highest percentage of hungry households (16 percent) and the highest rate of hungry children (24 percent) in the nation. The rate of hungry households is according to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report on household food security. The rate of childhood hunger is from a newly released study based on the USDA household food security report and sponsored by America ’s Second Harvest - The Nation’s Food Bank Network and The ConAgra Foods Foundation.

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NEWS RELEASE

HOLIDAY FOOD DRIVE DONATIONS DOWN

NOTE:  As of Dec. 11, thanks to the community, enough food drive donations had come in to decrease the gap between last year's drives and this year's so that donations are down only 25 percent rather than 50 percent as was the case when the news release below was published.  However, another 200,000 pounds are needed to meet this year's goal of 500,000 pounds.

FORT WORTH (Nov. 29, 2007) -- Donations to holiday food drives for Tarrant Area Food Bank are half what they were last year at this time.

During October and November of 2006, the food bank received more than 400,000 pounds of nonperishable food, reported Andrea Helms, food bank spokesperson. This year, for that same time period, the receipts are less than half that amount, and “that’s with more food drives being conducted than last year,” she said.

“We are concerned about this drop in donations,” Helms said. “Community food drives are a primary source of canned and boxed foods now that more and more of the donations from the food industry are fresh and frozen foods,” she said.

Nonperishable foods most needed at this time at Tarrant Area Food Bank include canned meats and fish, canned stews and hearty soups, canned fruits and vegetables, cereals and shelf-stable milk, either dried or liquid.

Donations can be dropped off at neighborhood fire stations in Tarrant County through December, at Wachovia Financial Centers through Dec. 10 and at the food bank at 2600 Cullen Street through Dec. 21. For more information, call Tarrant Area Food Bank, 817-332-9177.

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ANNOUNCEMENT November 19, 2007

FARM BILL STALLS, AMERICANS AND FOOD BANKS SUFFER

As most Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, 35 million Americans, including 3.7 million in Texas, struggle to put food on their tables, and food bank inventories nationwide, including Tarrant Area Food Bank’s, are scarce.

Debate in the U.S. Senate earlier in November provided a glimmer of hope that Congress would pass a Farm Bill soon and bring much needed relief to food banks and to hungry Americans. However, the debate stalled last week and the Senate adjourned for the Thanksgiving recess.

Food banks are suffering as a result of a more than a 70 percent decline in a federal food aid program in recent years. Strong agricultural markets have led to drastic reductions in food purchased and distributed by the Federal government.

Every day that goes by without a Farm Bill enacted, is a day that shelves continue to go empty.

Tarrant Area Food Bank and the 158,000 people we serve need a Farm Bill this year that provides increased funding for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and strengthens the Food Stamp Program.

Nationwide, we need at least $250 million a year in mandatory funding for TEFAP with the amount indexed for inflation to ensure that we can continue meeting the increased need for emergency food assistance in the 13-county region we serve.

If you would like to affect the future of food banking and the 2007 Farm Bill, consider contacting your Senators during their two-week Thanksgiving recess.

To provide immediate relief to Texans going hungry in the greater Tarrant County metropolitan area, consider donating food and/or funds or organizing a food drive to benefit Tarrant Area Food Bank.

For more information about the Farm Bill, see "Filling All Those Plates" below.

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NEWS REPORTS

STAR-TELEGRAM COLUMNIST PRAISES COMMUNITY KITCHEN PROGRAM

Star-Telegram writer Bob Ray Sanders highlights Community Kitchen graduates and praises the program in his Sunday, November 25, 2007, column headlined

"WHAT'S ON THIS LOCAL PROGRAM'S MENU? CHANGED LIVES" at http://www.realcities.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/18039987.htm.

TARRANT AREA FOOD BANK TEACHES COOKING, LIFE SKILLS

The Community Kitchen and one of its students is featured in a CBS11 story titled "Tarrant Area Food Bank Teaches Cooking, Life Skills" by reporter Mark Johnson.  This story aired Friday, Nov. 16, on the 6 p.m. newscast, the day before the student graduated from the Community Kitchen.  The written story and video can be viewed at http://cbs11tv.com/video/?id+22801@ktvt.dayport.com. CBS11 also sent a reporter and photographer to the graduation.

COMMUNITY KITCHEN STUDENTS SEEK SECOND CHANCE

NBC5 KXAS-TV has included the Tarrant Area Food Bank Community Kitchen on its Spotlight show Oct. 28 and Nov. 11.  A longer story aired on the 4 p.m. newscast Thursday, Nov. 8. This newscast video, "Community Kitchen Serves Second Chances," is on the station's website, www.nbc5i.com.

INDIAN PRINCESSES, FOOD BANK ON FOX 4 "HOMETOWN HEROES"

A Peanut Butter & Jelly Drive for the Food Bank's BackPacks for Kids program by the Yo-He-Wah Princesses and their Dads of Northeast Tarrant County are highlighted by Clarice Tinsley on her "Hometown Heroes" show.  The newscast and her written story are on the station's website, www.myfoxdfw.com/myfox.  This story aired Monday, Nov. 12, 2007, on the 5:30 p.m. newscast and Tuesday, Nov. 13, on the noon news.

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FILLING ALL THOSE PLATES

(As published in the Star-Telegram, Friday, Nov. 2, 2007 in the Opinion pages.)

By BO SODERBERGH [Executive Director, Tarrant Area Food Bank]
Special to the Star-Telegram

Hungry Texans needing food assistance would benefit greatly from a 2007 farm bill that will be debated Monday [Nov. 5] on the Senate floor. The proposed legislation would boost dwindling inventories at privately funded food banks while providing $4.3 billion in new investments in federal nutrition programs that serve more than 30 million Americans.

The debate in Congress about a farm bill underscores the importance and power of private charity and taxpayer dollars working together. In this instance, private and public dollars create America's social safety net for the millions of neighbors who struggle to afford basic necessities such as food.

Timing is crucial. Food banks and their clients throughout the nation and Texas -- including the Tarrant Area Food Bank -- are feeling the effects of decreased federal food donations from The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. As the cost of food increases, so must the level of funding for TEFAP, which would be done through the pending farm bill.

TEFAP provides the Tarrant Area Food Bank with some of the most nutritious (and therefore popular) products -- poultry, beans, rice, fruits and vegetables -- that the food bank is then able to distribute to low-income people throughout our 13-county service area. Unfortunately, since 2001, TEFAP commodities have declined 47 percent.

This decline has forced many of the Tarrant Area Food Bank's 300 partner hunger-relief charities -- pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, Kids Cafes and other feeding programs -- to purchase food in the retail marketplace, meaning that some of those charities have had to reduce the amount of food they can provide to hungry families seeking assistance. Fortunately, the increased funding for TEFAP proposed by the Senate committee eventually would boost the amount of food available to hunger-relief programs.

The proposed Senate farm bill also would strengthen the Food Stamp Program by expanding eligibility. For instance, the bill allows low-income families to have more in savings accounts without becoming ineligible and indexes the asset limit to inflation. The bill also excludes the combat pay bonuses paid to members of the U.S. military serving in Iraq and Afghanistan from being counted in determining food stamp eligibility.

Finally, the decline in federal assistance intersects with increasing costs for food, transportation and energy that force ever more families to seek help. The Tarrant Area Food Bank and our partner charities need to be able to respond to increased need locally; otherwise, thousands will suffer the consequences. We can respond, but not without everyone's help.

That help can be through food, funds or friends. For food, host a canned food drive at your church, school or workplace. Raise funds with special events at work, church, school or club meetings (or make individual donations) to help us and our partner hunger-relief agencies purchase needed foods in short supply. Finally, bring your friends to the Tarrant Area Food Bank or one of our partners located near you to volunteer sorting and packing food donations.

Together, with private donations and government nutrition programs, we can and will provide enough food to feed our hungry neighbors.

Added at end of column by Star-Telegram:

ABOUT THE FARM BILL

To read more about the Food and Energy Security Act of 2007: http://www.agriculture.senate.gov.

HOW TO HELP

For more information about the Tarrant Area Food Bank or to donate money online: www.tafb.org.

To donate by phone with a credit card, call 817-332-9177.

To donate by check, mail your contribution made out to Tarrant Area Food Bank to:

Barbara Ewen, Associate Director

Tarrant Area Food Bank

2600 Cullen St.

Fort Worth, TX 76107-1302

FOOD DONATIONS

These are accepted between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and between 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Friday at the Tarrant Area Food Bank's office and warehouse at 2600 Cullen St., Fort Worth.

Bo Soderbergh is executive director of the Tarrant Area Food Bank.

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NEWS RELEASE

Tarrant area architectural, engineering firms will provide more than 65,000 cans of food for local hunger-relief

Fort Worth firms sweep local CANstruction® awards

to go onto national competition

FORT WORTH (Oct. 15, 2007) -- Six architectural and engineering firms based in Fort Worth take away the awards in the 2007 Canstruction® Competition and Show on display through Saturday, Oct. 20, at North East Mall in Hurst, but all 14 firms that entered the 2007 Canstruction® event are winners in the fight against local hunger. The 65,000 or more cans of food used to build the giant sculptures will be donated to help feed hungry families in Tarrant County and 12 neighboring counties.

The juried awards, which were announced Monday evening, and their recipients are as follows:

Jurors' Favorite - Huckabee for their can-struction of super-sized penguins titled "Stomp, Glide, Waddle: Get Moving Against Hunger," which jurors said demonstrated "creativity, attention to detail and good use of labels and color";

Structural Ingenuity - TranSystems for a candle with a giant, multicolored flame titled "We CAN See the Light," which jurors described as an "elegant, twisting structure with good use of color";

Best Use of Labels - Gideon Toal for a MiniCooper car titled "Together We Can MINImize Hunger," which jurors cited for its "unbelievable detail";

Best Meal - Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford for an ancient triumphal arch titled "A Different Perspective" and constructed of boxes of spaghetti and cans of mushrooms, olives, tomatoes, tomato sauce and parmesan cheese. The jurors said the structure is a "great meal" and "delivers on its title," a reference to the hilly terrain and the tilted road running through the arch;

Honorable Mention - Freese and Nichols for an 8-foot frog sitting on a log titled "Kiss Hunger Goodbye," which jurors said "leaps out at the viewer."

Honorable Mention - Frank W. Neal and Associates for ten 8-foot bowling pins sitting on a bowling alley. Jurors said it "bowled us over."

Visual images of these winning can-structions will be entered in the national Canstruction® competition sponsored by the Society for Design Administration. Winners from three other Texas cities (Dallas, Houston and San Antonio) will also compete.

The other eight local firms that built can-structions this year incude, from ARLINGTON-- LBL Architects, Sterling Barnett Little, Tarrant County College Southeast and VLK Architects; and from FORT WORTH --Carter-Burgess, Franz Jeanes Lazo Cora & Associates, HKS and Quorum Architects.

Serving as jurors were Stephen Darrow, president, Fort Worth Chapter, American Institute of Architects; Rebecca Boles, program director for interior design, School of Architecture, University of Texas at Arlington; Larry Clements, Acme Brick; Steve Bowden, general manager, North East Mall; Kathy Jones, KLUV-FM Radio; Michelle Lee, The Ranch Radio; and Jenny Moore, president, Tarrant Area Food Bank Board of Directors. 

The Fort Worth area Canstruction® event has been organized for nine years, including 2007, by the Fort Worth chapters of the Society for Design Administration and the American Institute of Architects.  Nationwide, all Canstruction® competitions are community service projects done under the auspices of the Society for Design Administration and its Canstruction® Foundation.

When the local Canstruction® is dismantled, the food will be donated to Tarrant Area Food Bank, the regional food bank serving 300 hunger-relief charities in 13 counties around Fort Worth. From the past eight Tarrant County competitions more than 399,000 pounds of food have gone to this nonprofit distribution center.

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CONTACTS:

Julie Meeks, Society for Design Administration (SDA), Canstruction 2007 Chairwoman, Frank W. Neal & Associates, 817-332-1944

Andrea Helms, Communications Dir., Tarrant Area Food Bank, (ofc) 817-332-9177

NEWS RELEASE

Feast for the eyes, food for the hungry

Local architects, engineers to build giant sculptures with

cans and boxes of food destined for local food bank

Canstruction® Design/Build Competition and Show

open to public Oct. 14 - 20, 2007

NEWS RELEASE

Friday, Sept. 28, 2007

Tarrant Area Food Bank to celebrate 25th birthday at home

City, County, corporation to be honored for their longtime support

FORT WORTH, TX (Sept. 5, 2007) -- Tarrant Area Food Bank, founded in 1982, will mark its 25th year of service with a 25TH ANNIVERSARY BIRTHDAY PARTY IN ITS WAREHOUSE on Friday evening, Sept. 28. The party will feature a birthday cake for each table, dinner catered by Reata, a party favor with a special twist, and, in keeping with the warehouse setting, music by the City of Fort Worth garage band, the MooTown Rockers. Tours through part of the food bank's 69,000 square-foot warehouse will be offered during a reception before dinner.

        During dinner, IN RECOGNITION OF THE COMMUNITY'S SUPPORT FOR A QUARTER OF A CENTURY, Tarrant Area Food Bank will honor the City of Fort Worth, Tarrant County and Capital One. City and county employees have organized food drives benefiting the regional food bank ever since its first food drive in 1982. CAPITAL ONE, with a donation to be presented at the party, will have CONTRIBUTED MORE THAN $1 MILLION to Tarrant Area Food Bank since 1997. The Capital One gifts will total more than any total amount contributed by any other single donor throughout the food bank's history.

       The Tarrant Area Food Bank Birthday Party is Friday, Sept. 28, 2007 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. The reception is at 5:30 and dinner swill be served at 6:30 p.m. Attire is casual.

       The food bank's warehouse is at 2600 Cullen St., Fort Worth, TX 76107. Look for the 20-foot tall balloon chef. Free valet parking by Rent A Frog will be available.

        TICKETS at $65 per person or $650 per table of 10 can be purchased online at www.tafb.org or by calling 817-332-9177, ext. 110.

        The event is made possible by Capital One as presenting sponsor and other sponsors including Bank of America Trust, Jere Robertson, Central Market/HEB, Doris and Robert Klabzuba, the Rogers Family, Harris Methodist Fort Worth Hospital, Coors Distributing Company of Fort Worth, Kroger Grocery, Albertson's, Alcon and Tom Thumb.

        The BIRTHDAY PARTY EVENTS COMMITTEE is led by Terry Haney, coordinator of the TCU Frog Club and a past chairwoman of the Tarrant Area Food Bank Board of Directors. Committee members are Kelly Bevis, Wachovia Securities, and Food Bank Board members Larry Anfin, Coors Distributing Company of Fort Worth, Ann Farmer, Tarrant County, Joe Gallagher, Cooks Children's Hospital, and Jenny Moore, community volunteer and president of the 2007-08 Food Bank Board.

        FOLLOWING THE EXAMPLE OF Tarrant Area Food Bank's rescue of viable surplus food, two members of the committee, Jenny Moore and Ann Farmer, have led the effort to rescue from garage sales and second-hand stores attractive cake plates for displaying the centerpiece cakes. The BIRTHDAY CAKE centerpieces are being donated by local bakeries, culinary schools, country clubs and grocers.

        TARRANT AREA FOOD BANK, founded in 1982, is the primary source of donated food for 300 major hunger-relief programs in Fort Worth and 13 surrounding counties. Its network of charities in just Tarrant County alone includes 117 in Fort Worth, 16 in Arlington, 24 in Northeast Tarrant and 28 in cities ranging as far north as Azle to as far south as Crowley and Mansfield. Each month, the 13-county network distributes groceries to 35,000 families and serves 500,000 meals and snacks on agency sites. For more information, visit

www.tafb.org.

FIGHTING HUNGER OVERVIEW THEN & NOW

THEN: In 1982, Tarrant Area Food Bank served nearby charities in Tarrant County NOW: Serves charities in 13 counties over a territory of nearly 11,000 square miles, an area larger than the state of Vermont.

THEN: Transferred nonperishable food to 50 charities in 1982.

NOW: Works with more than 300 nonprofit organizations to distribute not only boxed and canned foods, but fresh and frozen produce, bread, meat and dairy products.

THEN: Existed as a start-up in donated warehouse space.

NOW: Operates a 69,000 square-foot warehouse with two-story high freezers and coolers and state-of-the art inventory system.

THEN: Began operations with only a few dozen volunteers.

NOW: 3,000 volunteers donated 66,000 hours of service in 2006-07.

THEN: Moved about one million pounds of food the first 12 months of operation.

NOW: Distributes more than 15 million pounds of food each year.

THEN: Only program addressing hunger was distribution of food to other agencies.

NOW: In addition to distributing food to partner charities, Tarrant Area Food Bank provides direct feeding programs such as Kids Cafe and BackPacks for Kids to school children so they can concentrate on learning; offers Operation Frontline to help low-income families get the best possible nutrition on limited budgets; provides information about and help with applying for Food Stamps; operates a Community Kitchen offering basic culinary job training to low-income adults.

THEN: Began operations with a proposed annual budget of $156,000 and a staff of four full-time and two part-time employees.

NOW: Operates with a staff of 45 full-time employees and a cash budget of $4 million. The value of the food handled brings the total annual revenue to about $25 million.

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NEWS NOTE September 2007

LOCAL RADIO ANNOUNCER HELPS WITH FOOD BANK VIDEO

As the Tarrant Area Food Bank celebrates its 25th anniversary, the community is stepping up to join the fight against hunger in many ways.

       Mitch Carr of 98.7 KLUV, a CBS radio station, has donated his unique skills and talents to create a voiceover narration for a Tarrant Area Food Bank

Photo: Mitch Carr and Andrea Helms, Food Bank communications director, work on voice over.

mini-documentary video. The original video --- with music, titles, and commentary by volunteers, staff and agency partners --- is the introductory part of a new Food Bank Speakers Bureau program.        With the involvement of volunteer ambassadors and contributors like Mitch, the Food Bank’s Speakers Bureau will create awareness of and understanding about hunger in our area.        The Tarrant Area Food Bank invites you to join the fight in a way that works best for you --- by hosting a food drive, by donating funds, and by volunteering with friends.

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RESEARCH STUDY published July/August 2007

NUTRITION EDUCATION CHANGES BEHAVIOR

Tarrant Area Food Bank partners with Share Our Strength to offer Operation Frontline, an innovative program using cooking classes to teach nutrition to low-income families. The goal is to provide a long-term solution to hunger and poor nutrition by teaching how to get the best nutrition possible on a limited budget.

According to a recent study conducted by researchers at Colorado State University, Operation Frontline students maintain changed eating habits at least three to six months after participating in a class. The research brief, "Operation Frontline: Assessment of Longer-term Curriculum Effectiveness, Evaluation Strategies, and Follow-up Methods," is published in the July/August 2007 Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior . The researchers looked at Eating Right graduates in Denver, Colorado, and found that the behavior changes made by Operation Frontline graduates were still present three and six months after class.

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IN THE NEWS

THE ECONOMIC COST OF DOMESTIC HUNGER

Estimated Annual Burden to the United States

June 5, 2007

An analysis commissioned by the Sodexho Foundation,

in partnership with the Public Welfare Foundation and

the Spunk Fund, Inc.

Each year around 35 million Americans live in households that don't get enough to eat. Here in North Central Texas more than 500,000 children, parents, senior citizens and others face chronic hunger.

But it's not just their problem. It's ours. In fact, it's a $90 billion problem.

That's the annual tab we all bear for the direct and indirect societal costs of continuing hunger and its negative outcomes. That collective tab is officially called a “cost burden” by researchers studying the problem.  These cost burdens accrue to households, communities, businesses, and governments, according to a June 2007 report by university researchers. The first of its kind on hunger, this report analyzes what it costs the American public to tolerate hunger and food insecurity. 

Kinds of Costs.  Because hunger in the USA  is at high levels, there is, first, the personal cost of hunger to a child or to families who cannot afford to feed their kids. Then there is the economic cost to the nation, the costs of the charity required to help families get through another day, costs of impaired educational outcomes that scientific research has linked to children not getting enough to eat, and the bills we all pay for the mental and physical illnesses that are linked to inadequate nutrition and that contribute to absentiism in the classroom and the workplace.  

That $90 billion annually means that on average each person living in the U.S. pays $300 every year for the hunger bill. On a household basis this cost is $800 a year or $8,000 over a decade. And because the research based the $90 billion cost figure on a cautious methodology, the actual cost of hunger and food insecurity to the nation is no doubt much higher.

Experts believe that federal policymakers could end hunger as a serious national problem by strengthening existing federal nutrition programs by about $10 to $12 billion over current spending. This means that virtually ending hunger in our nation would be far less costly than paying the current annual bill. 

To learn more about these issues, the full report is available here as a pdf. (Report includes 22 pages of text plus 15 pages of terminology and bibliography.)

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NEWS RELEASE (May 30, 2007)

Tarrant Area Food Bank to kick off

25th Anniversary Celebration with fund-raising party and public discussion of local hunger

Regional Fort Worth food bank to launch next 25 years of hunger relief

on National Hunger Awareness Day, June 5, followed by

Local Hunger Roundtable and recognition of partners, June 7

FORT WORTH (May 30, 2007)—Living in the margins of the bustling economy of the greater Fort Worth region are hungry families and individuals for whom a shopping trip is a visit to the neighborhood food pantry. Supplying that pantry and hundreds more with donated food for the past 25 years has been Tarrant Area Food Bank.

"Considering the extent of hunger in our region, we are looking toward helping communities fight hunger for the next 25 years," said Bo Soderbergh, Tarrant Area Food Bank executive director. "More than 250,000 people in the 13 counties we serve live in extreme poverty and face undernourishment or outright hunger every day," he said.

On National Hunger Awareness Day, TUESDAY, JUNE 5, Tarrant Area Food Bank kicks off its 25th anniversary year with its tenth annual ¡Adiós, Hunger! garden party and continues the celebration THURSDAY, JUNE 7, with the roundtable discussion, Local Charities on Local Hunger—Fighting Hunger for the Next 25 Years. Other events marking the food bank's past and future 25 years of service include the 25th Anniversary Birthday Party on Sept. 28.

The popular ¡Adiós, Hunger! fund-raising event on JUNE 5 will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Joe T. Garcia's Mexican Fiesta Gardens . Proceeds from the event help the food bank feed children who, during the summer, cannot depend on school meals for their basic nutrition. For details and to purchase tickets, please call the food bank at 817-332-9177 or go online at www.tafb.org.

On THURSDAY, JUNE 7, dedicated volunteers and professionals on the front lines of the fight against local hunger—a panel of members from Tarrant Area Food Bank’s network of 300 hunger-relief charities—will provide a glimpse of what is happening in the trenches. Panelists will describe who is seeking food assistance and trends in local poverty and hunger-relief services.  Broadcast journalist Catherine Cuellar will serve as moderator and call on journalists and audience members for their questions. To reserve a seat for the roundtable and/or conference, call 817-332-9177, ext. 118.

The roundtable, Local Charities on Local Hunger--Fighting Hunger for the Next 25 Years, is scheduled from 8:30 to 9:15 a.m. and will open Agency Roundup 2007, a day-long conference hosted by Tarrant Area Food Bank for its network of partner agencies. The Roundtable and the Agency Roundup conference will be held at Broadway Baptist Church, 305 W. Broadway, Fort Worth, 76104.

THE FIRST NONPROFIT AGENCIES TO SIGN UP FOR FOOD from Tarrant Area Food Bank in September 1982 will be honored at Agency Roundup 2007 during the Town Hall Meeting session at 3 p.m.  The agencies still in existence are Women's Haven (now SafeHaven Fort Worth), Senior Citizen Services, American Red Cross, Northside Inter-Church Agency (NICA), Mental Health/ Mental Retardation, World Missionary Baptist church, St. John the Apostle Catholic Church/N.E.E.D., Girls, Inc., of Tarrant County and Arlington Charities. 

ABOUT NATIONAL HUNGER AWARENESS DAY

This day focuses on Americans and Texans living in poverty and thus at risk of hunger – 36 million Americans nationwide, 3.1 million Texans and 253,000 adults and children in the greater Tarrant County metropolitan area.

ABOUT TARRANT AREA FOOD BANK

Tarrant Area Food Bank opened its doors in September 1982 to receive commercial food donations and in October distributed 17,768 pounds of donated food to 37 agencies in Fort Worth and Arlington. Today, Tarrant Area Food Bank distributes more than one million pounds of donated food a month to 300 church and agency food-assistance programs in 13 counties.

Each month the Tarrant Area Food Bank network of hunger-relief charities distributes emergency groceries to 35,000 families and serves more than 500,000 meals and snacks to Texans in need. The 13 counties served are Tarrant, Denton, Johnson, Hood, Parker, Cooke, Bosque, Erath, Hamilton, Hill, Palo Pinto, Somervell and Wise.

For its first 18 years, Tarrant Area Food Bank focused solely on obtaining and distributing donated food. Today, to complement its food distribution, the food bank operates two feeding programs for children—Kids Cafes and BackPacks for Kids, provides nutrition education for all ages to help food assistance recipients obtain optimum nutrition from donated food, and offers basic culinary training for low-income adults seeking a career earning more than minimum wage.

A certified affiliate of America’s Second Harvest-The Nation’s Food Bank Network, Tarrant Area Food Bank is ranked one of the Best in America by Independent Charities of America.

For more information, visit www. tafb.org, or call 817-332-9177.

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Tarrant Area Food Bank Fights Hunger

On NBC5i.com (http://www.nbc5i.com/community/13227405/detail.html)

April, May 2007 

One in seven children and their families are at serious risk for hunger. Fortunately, there is help.

NBC 5 encourages you to support the Tarrant Area Food Bank, at work in our community since 1982, to see that no one goes hungry. This 25-year-old institution is focused solely on leading the fight against hunger, and they can’t do it without you. Please visit www.food-bank.us/FoodDrive.html or call 817-332-9177 to find out how you can host a food drive, volunteer, or donate to this important cause.

Imagine this: While some folks casually charge their cappuccinos, order breakfast burritos or argue about scrambled or fried, others must think about facing the day on an empty stomach. On a recent morning, one mother awakened her son with that brutal fact foremost in her thoughts. She lost her job a few months earlier and knew her son would want breakfast that she just didn’t have. She has worked several part time positions, but meals, money and peace of mind are hard to come by. She continuously fights to put food on the table.

Unfortunately, this mom’s situation is not unique. Hunger and food insufficiency hit close to home for too many like her throughout North Texas. One in seven children and their families are at serious risk for hunger. Fortunately, the Tarrant Area Food Bank works tirelessly to put food on the table.

Partnering with 300 non-profit agencies in Tarrant and 12 area counties, Tarrant Area Food Bank supplies food and programs to help with food access and awareness for nearly 35,000 households every month. In many of these households, families live near or below the poverty line. Others are seniors on fixed incomes who have to choose between buying medicines or making a trip to the grocery store.

Whether out of work, low-wage earners, homeless or in temporarily difficult circumstances, these citizens depend on their local agencies and Tarrant Area Food Bank — part of the social service safety net that helps with food and related services.

To learn more, visit www.food-bank.us/FoodDrive.html today, and join NBC 5 and Tarrant Area Food Bank in the Fight to End Hunger!

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NEWS RELEASE

First Community Kitchen in Tarrant County opens to offer

culinary job training for low-income adults,

meals for Kids Cafes

Tarrant Area Food Bank expands mission

to job training for the hungry

Collaboration of nonprofits makes kitchen possible

FORT WORTH, TX (January 30, 2007) – Since the first of January of this year, 10 adult students have been learning culinary skills under the tutelage of a professional chef at the first community kitchen to be established on the west side of the Fort Worth-Dallas area.

     A community kitchen uses donated, rescued food as well as purchased food to feed some part of the community by providing free culinary job training to low-income individuals who prepare meals.

     “The Tarrant Area Food Bank Community Kitchen,” said Bo Soderbergh, the food bank’s executive director, “expands our mission to include not only distribution of donated food, nutrition education and feeding programs for children, but job training to make adults employable and capable of providing for themselves and their families.”

     Tarrant Area Food Bank has developed its Community Kitchen as a collaboration with East Fort Worth Montessori School and The Women’s Center of Tarrant County. The school provides the commercial kitchen, and The Women’s Center provides a counselor who teaches the culinary students life skills such as time management and resumé writing. The counselor is also the case manager for the participants, some of whom may be unemployed, homeless or temporarily dependent on welfare. Tarrant Area Food Bank provides the chef instructor, kitchen utensils and food, recruits and screens student applicants and directs the program.

      At the TAFB Community Kitchen, Chef Instructor Linn Ward teaches and supervises the students as they prepare meals for Tarrant Area Food Bank’s Kids Cafe at East Fort Worth Montessori School. Eventually, future Community Kitchen classes will also prepare meals for some of the other Kids Cafes in Fort Worth.

       After 12 weeks of instruction, each student will participate in a four-week internship in a commercial or institutional kitchen of a hotel, restaurant, hospital or other food service facility. Community Kitchen graduates will be ready to work in these kinds of facilities where they will have opportunities for career advancement.

      To qualify for the Community Kitchen training, applicants must be 18 years or older, eligible to work in the United States and economically disadvantaged. They must have reliable transportation or be on a bus line. Applicants must be able to pass initial drug screening and random screening throughout the training. If an applicant has ever been incarcerated, the offense cannot have been a violent crime or crime against a child. Also, applicants must be able to read and write English, to read and do math at the sixth-grade level and to have a high school diploma, GED, or be enrolled in a GED program or willing to work on a GED.

      Needs of the TAFB Community Kitchen include volunteer chefs, internship positions and on-going funding, which is welcomed from individual donors, foundations, businesses and community groups.

      For more information about the Tarrant Area Food Bank Community Kitchen, contact Lylette Pharr, director of agency services and community outreach, at 817-332-9177, ext. 118.

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ANNOUNCEMENT (Jan. 19, 2007)

Tarrant Area Food Bank's weekend feeding program

expands to Arlington and Haltom City
   
First BackPacks for Kids program in a middle school starts in Haltom City

      Tarrant Area Food Bank's program providing backpacks of food for children at risk of hunger over the weekends has expanded to an elementary school in Arlington, and, for the first time, to a middle school, Haltom Middle School. 

      At Haltom Middle School in Haltom City, 70 percent of the students qualify for the free and reduced-price lunch program.  Up to 40 families per school can be served by Backpacks for Kids.  Each family receives enough nutritrious snacks for the weekend for each school-aged child in the household.

      At Webb Elementary School in north Arlington, BackPacks for Kids is in its second semester and is already serving the maximum 40 families, according to Elizabeth Reyes, family representative at the Webb Family Resource Center.  At Webb, 93% of the students qualify for free and reduced-price meals.

      All of Tarrant Area Food Bank's BackPacks for Kids programs are placed at schools in which a high percentage of children, according to federal poverty guidelines, are economically disadvantaged.

      BackPacks for Kids in Arlington and Haltom City bring Tarrant Area Food Bank's total number of weekend backpack feeding programs to 12.  The other BackPacks for Kids programs include five in Fort Worth, two in Hamilton County (City of Hamilton and City of Hico) and one each in Hurst, Lake Worth and Cooke County (Gainesville).

      For information on how to help Tarrant Area Food Bank sustain and expand BackPacks for Kids, please call Lylette Pharr, director of agency services and community outreach, at 817-332-9177, ext. 118.

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