Houston Food Bank helping battle food insecurity for local families

You know what? You're probably worried about money and the economy, right? So because groceries, right, prices are so high, a lot of people are dealing with food insecurity. That's when you don't know where your next meal is coming from. And the numbers are really high here in the Houston area. A Rice University study just released found that half of Harris County households with children do not have reliable access to healthy food. So we have Olivia Dance live at the Houston Food Bank with more on how we can help. If there's one thing we know about Houston, which I'm sure you know since you've been here, is that if there's help needed, Houston always shows up. Absolutely, Sally and Lena. And the Houston Food Bank does an incredible job of helping to fill those gaps. So I want to bring in Brian Green, president and CEO of the Houston Food Bank. Good morning. Thanks for being here so early with us. I appreciate it. Thank you for coming here. So right now we're in the warehouse. Tell us about kind of the operations that happen in here just behind us, behind our cameras, where all the loading docks are. But you can see just how much food is behind us as well. So today will be a typical day. We'll send in about 60 trucks out into the community. We're doing both pickups from the stores, the distribution centers, going to some farms. We're going all the way down to the Mexican border, four trucks going down there. And then delivering it to families in need through a network of about 1800 distribution partners, charitable organizations that want to help people in their community. So the it-takes-a-team effort or it-takes-a-village is really at play here, because a lot of moving parts are involved to help the community. As far as just the size of this operation, you guys are massive even compared to just other food banks in the country. Is that right? Well, mostly because Houston really has been very great with Houston Food Bank. Particularly on the volunteer side, we have the largest volunteer core in the country for any food bank. And that's what's enabled us to say yes to more donations than any other food bank. We do have the most total food distributed per year in the country. Fantastic. I think that also leads me to my next question, though, about the need and food insecurity in our region. Can you tell us a little bit about that and how that need has increased in recent years? Yeah, it's been a very frustrating phenomenon that we have actually seen using the Census Bureau figures, the latest map, the meal gap study shows that food insecurity did rise. Right now, it's about one in four children in Texas are food insecure and about one in five total for the state. Now, food insecurity means that you don't have enough resources for a consistent, healthy diet. Some of the people who are food insecure goes hungry, but that's a smaller subset. Of course, it's particularly tragic when it's children. And about 5,000 children go hungry a day in our area. That's a lot. But when you compare it to the size of the population, it's small, but it's just very tragic. Overwhelmingly, when there's actually hunger in the household, it's the parents who are the ones who are going hungry, not the kids. But we don't want anybody to go hungry. No, absolutely not. And obviously, you guys do a fantastic job of trying to fill those gaps, but certainly concerning that the need is higher. So we'll talk a little bit more about that in an hour. We're also going to catch up with you and then also about all the programs that you guys offer and really how you are helping the community. So thank you so much for talking with us. And of course, we'll catch up with you in about an hour. Thank you. Thank you, Brian. We'll send it back to you guys. Thank you. So you can make donations. You can volunteer. And don't forget, Houston Restaurant Weeks is happening right now. And a great part of the proceeds benefit the Houston Food Bank. Thanks, Olivia. Food insecurity is on the rise across the country, and that includes right here at home, too. A Rice University study released yesterday found that half of Harris County households with kids don't have reliable access to healthy food. Olivia Danz joins us now live from the Houston Food Bank with more about the growing problems and how you can actually help. Good morning to you, Olivia. Morning, Melissa and Delon. So I'm back here with Brian Green, CEO and president of the Houston Food Bank. Thanks so much for joining us again. Oh, thank you for being here. And now in this room, the carousel room. Yeah, so this is the carousel room. Before we were in the warehouse, tell us about kind of what goes on in this room. This is one of our larger volunteer rooms. Up to 300 volunteers at a time can work here sorting. This is the damaged goods that comes from the supermarkets. And so they do the safety inspections, the sanitizing, categorizing, boxing. And we can have anywhere from 20 to 300 volunteers. And their average output dollar value per person is over $75. So for most people, an hour of your time donating is actually going to benefit us more than an hour of your paycheck. Fantastic. OK, so obviously, volunteers are always wanted, always needed here. And you guys have the space and the ability to handle a lot of volunteers at once, especially in this room, which is incredible. Let's talk about the need. So I know that food insecurity is on the rise in Texas. One in four children in the state are facing food insecurity. This is new this year, but Houston ISD, the free lunch cuts, has that increased need. And also, what else is a factor in the increased need, especially among children? Yeah, well, of course, school year just began. And it's about 30 of the schools that will not have universal free lunch programs, breakfast. So that is going to impact a number of kids, unfortunately. I assume that we'll be seeing the impact over time of that change. It's just unfortunate that so many schools are struggling financially, because frankly, we're just not funding them well enough. And as they're finding places that they can cut, this is one that some of them seem to feel the need to do. So more volunteers probably here will be beneficial to help you guys fill those gaps. What programs do you all offer? Because there's a lot that you do, especially for kids in our community. Well, specifically targeted kids. Of course, we have the Kids Cafe program, where we provide hot meals for after school programs. That runs in our kitchen every day. Then we also have the Backpack program, which is targeted to the children who are actually experiencing hunger on the weekends, where discreetly packaged foods can be provided to those kids on Fridays. And then we have the school markets that we work with many, many schools on. And we even have a program we call Teachers Aid, where we use some of this flow of product to provide school supplies for area teachers. Fantastic. Well, thank you for all the work that you guys do. As we mentioned, volunteers are always needed. And then where can folks go if they are in need of food assistance? The same place. If you just go to our website, houstonfoodbank.org, and then we can refer you to the pantry. Or you can call United Ways 211. Fantastic. Thank you so much, Brian. We'll send it back to you guys. A lot of simple ways to make a huge difference, and it sure sounds like we need it. Okay. Olivia, thank you.