Hot off the heels of federal funding cuts, Texas food banks are counting on the community for help this month.
September marks Hunger Action Month, a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of food insecurity and support local food banks. It’s coming at a difficult time, with threats to funding making it harder for food banks to serve those in need.
Even so, there’s hope that community support can help to alleviate some of the burden.
Celia Cole, CEO of the statewide food bank network Feeding Texas, spoke to Texas Standard about what Hunger Action Month means, and how food banks are counting on the community support it inspires. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: We last spoke to you in July, when food banks across the state were starting to feel the effects of federal funding cuts. Has the situation improved or escalated since then?
Celia Cole: I think we continue to see increased need, definitely during the summer months when school is out. Kids lose access to free school meals. We always see a spike in people needing our help.
So we see a lot more families with kids in our lines, but we are seeing sustained higher levels of need, sometimes not so much just more people, but the same people more frequently. So it’s a combination of those things, and some of that is the loss of federal funding, but food banks have definitely lost some resources, and so we’re looking at what we need to do to pivot to be able to keep up with the demand.
Have people across Texas been heeding the call, trying to fill the gap? Have you seen an increase in donations or volunteering, or not as much as you need?
We have seen an increase, and we are very grateful to all of our donors and to the members of our communities who are willing to step up and help their neighbors in need during this time.
I think the theme of this Hunger Action Month is just that: in times of crisis, Texans come together and help one another. We saw that so clearly with the Hill Country floods, just an outpouring of support, food banks bringing in food, and food banks from other parts of the state helping their sister food banks.
We really want to sustain that level of giving and support, and Hunger Action Month is a great time to call attention to that.
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Community support and “Texans helping Texans” was also something that the Texas Department of Agriculture mentioned in their statement about Hunger Action Month. They’re one of your partners in raising awareness.
What more would you love to see from the state if you had a magic wand, in terms of other support and policies?
Well, we’ve always been really fortunate to have great relationships with our elected officials in Texas, as well as the agency officials like Commissioner [Sid] Miller. We’re grateful to them for the support that they’ve shown us over the years. Our partnership with TDA goes back several decades, and “Texans Feeding Texans” is sort of the informal name of a produce program that we have in partnership with them.
So, I think just continuing to support food banks and recognizing the critical work we do… Particularly during times of economic downturn, or through a lot of the uncertainty we’re seeing right now in terms of federal funding changes.
We were disappointed when Summer EBT was first authorized by the Legislature – that’s the program that helps kids during the summer make sure they continue to have access to healthy food – we were disappointed when Gov. Abbott vetoed that, and he obviously did that because of all the uncertainty.
So we’d like to see that decision reversed. I think knowing that there will be that summer meals program next summer will alleviate a lot of the strain that food banks are feeling, and some of the challenges we’re anticipating once some of the cuts in HR 1 go through.
Beyond that, I think it’s just continuing to support the work that food banks do during times of disaster. I think there are a lot of efficiencies that could be gained if we formalized our partnership with the state, so we’ll definitely be working with our friends downtown at the Texas Capitol to see what we can do to enhance that partnership that’s been in place for so many years.
What are some of the things you’ve heard from food banks across the state? What are they doing during Hunger Action Month to really get people motivated to donate and to support their local food banks?
Well, if you walk into any food bank in Texas these days, you’ll see a lot of orange. That’s the color of Hunger Action Month, and so the easiest thing you can do is to wear orange, and talk to your neighbors. Make sure that everyone’s aware just how many of our neighbors are struggling with food insecurity, and the work that food banks are doing across the state in every county to meet the need.
So really it’s three things: time, money, and voice. We couldn’t do what we do without the thousands of volunteers that come out.
Second is money, financial support. We can stretch people’s dollars a lot further. So we ask people to donate money when they can, and if they can’t, we ask them to think about donating to food drives.
And finally, voice. I think that’s really what Hunger Action Month is all about. It’s about speaking up and not being silent when you see a neighbor in need, and speaking to state and federal elected officials and helping them understand the consequences for our state when our kids aren’t growing up nourished and ready to learn.
