New Branch of the East Texas Food Bank Brings New Resources to Texarkana
The East Texas Food Bank (ETFB) will open a new multi-service branch in Texarkana this winter, southwest of downtown.
“The healthy food pantry will distribute food five days a week, serving approximately 160 client households per day through a client-choice distribution model,” said Dennis Cullinane, CEO of the East Texas Food Bank. “This enables the individual to select items they want. ETFB estimates the Texarkana Branch will serve 840,000 meals a year. The pantry will complement other area partners we already work with in Bowie County by offering additional hours and days to access resources.”
ETFB received a grant from the T.L.L. Temple Foundation to help launch the Texarkana branch. “We are thankful for our partnership with the foundation and their passion for alleviating food insecurity in our region,” added Cullinane.
ETFB opened its first branch in 2021 in Lufkin. The Deep East Texas Resource Center (DETRC) was also funded by the T.L.L. Temple Foundation. In the first year, the DETRC served over 3,100 households and 753,254 meals. ETFB will also open similar branches this summer in Tyler and Longview.
The recent study, Map the Meal Gap, conducted by the national food bank network Feeding America, revealed that nearly 16% of Bowie County residents, including 25% of children are food-insecure and at risk of hunger.
Other programs that will be offered at the new Texarkana branch:
• Benefits Assistance Program – helps clients apply for SNAP and other social service benefits, including Medicaid, Texas Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the Medicare Savings Program, and Healthy Texas Women.
• Access to additional wrap-around services – such as Texas Workforce Commission, WIC, health screenings, and other services provided through collaboration with local community organizations and healthcare partnerships.
• Host site for the ETFB Agency Institute – provides training, resources and support to partner hunger relief agencies in various aspects of nonprofit management and effectiveness.
“ETFB has served Bowie County for over 30 years,” added Cullinane. “Feeding America assigns counties to each food bank and we have 26 counties in northeast Texas. We are blessed to work in a partnership with Harvest Regional Food Bank in Texarkana, Arkansas, as Bowie County is a shared county.”
ETFB was founded in 1988 and is celebrating 35 years of fighting hunger in East Texas. Last year ETFB provided 27 million meals in our service area including more than 1.1million meals in Bowie County.
Vivian says the senior box her elderly dad receives each month from New Day Food Pantry in Texarkana helps her father. “It makes a great difference because then he doesn’t have to spend as much money on food and he can pay other bills.”
ETFB serves approximately 7,100 low-income households in Bowie County through the following programs and initiatives:
• Partner Agencies are the heart of our hunger relief network. We currently partner with nine agencies in BowieCounty, including one in Maud, and eight in Texarkana.
• BackPack Program helps close the “hunger gap” for children who are at-risk of hunger on weekends. The BackPack Program serves children across six school districts in Bowie County.
• Senior Box Program provides boxes of food each month to low-income seniors. In the last fiscal year, 19,861 meals were served.
• Fresh Produce Program distributes 760,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to low-income residents of Bowie County.
• Mobile Pantry Program distributes food to more than 900 Texarkana households in underserved communities where there is a high concentration of poverty.
• Benefits Assistance Program helps eligible East Texans register for social service benefits.
“Food is a basic need for everyone. As a Texarkana native and current chair of the East Texas Food Bank Board of Directors, I am excited that we have the opportunity to open an ETFB branch in Texarkana,” said Jeff W. Johnston. “Our Vision is ‘AHunger-Free East Texas’ and Our Mission is to ‘Fight Hunger and Feed Hope in East Texas.’ Texarkana has a strong legacy of helping others and providing hope for the future. We look forward to working with Texarkana on this new outreach.”
For more information, visit EastTexasFoodBank.org.
To locate resources in Bowie County or any of the counties we serve click on FIND FOOD at the top of our web page to see all of our programs. If you want donate to our missions please click on DONATE NOW on the web page and to see how you can help our partners in Bowie County click on VOLUNTEER.
