The San Antonio Food Bank’s Day of Service is set for Tuesday, June 9. Photo: google
The San Antonio Food Bank announces a Day of Service this Tuesday, June 9 to honor George Floyd. The food bank will open up extra volunteer opportunities, including a mobile pop-up distribution at Trader’s Village, to make room for all those who might want to join the food bank in this day of service and love. Anyone interested may sign up online. (San Antonio Food Bank, 2020)
“I am calling our community to join me in a day of service on Tuesday, June 9, to honor the life of George Floyd. Knowing that so many want to do a physical act of love that honors Mr. Floyd’s life, I am inviting our community to join me in serving those in need in our community on the day his family will hold their private funeral service.” – Eric Cooper, President and CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank
The San Antonio Food Bank is a 501c3 non‐profit organization providing millions of pounds of food to over 530 charitable organizations in Southwest Texas serving those in need. In addition to food distribution, the San Antonio Food Bank provides numerous programs that not only solve the immediate problems of hunger but help individuals and families gain long‐term food security.
Bank of America recently announced their $100 million contribution to support communities around the world during this time of need. As part of this effort, the bank is working with organizations that are going above and beyond to provide assistance in San Antonio to serve our most vulnerable populations amidst the coronavirus crisis. (San Antonio Food Bank, 2020)
In total, the bank is supporting local nonprofits in San Antonio with $375,000. Of this, $200,000 is going to the San Antonio Food Bank to address food insecurity – an urgent need in the community. In addition to food insecurity, the nonprofits the bank is supporting are focused on homelessness, emergency childcare services and child abuse and neglect.
The six local nonprofits receiving support from Bank of America include the San Antonio Food Bank, Haven for Hope, SA Hope Center, Soldiers’ Angels, ChildSafe and United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County.
The San Antonio Food Bank supports 16 counties in the San Antonio area and a total population of 2.5 million. Historically, the Food Bank serves approximately 60,000 families per week, but demand has recently doubled. This contribution from Bank of America will help the Food Bank purchase food and supplies needed to provide to families.
Haven for Hope is a 22-acre facility providing emergency shelter and transformational services and resources to individuals, families and children experiencing homelessness. The organization will utilize these funds to compensate staff overtime and temp workers, purchase additional critical supplies such as food, sleeping mats and activities for children and increase cleaning and janitorial services during the coronavirus pandemic.
SA Hope Center is a resource center empowering individuals and families in crisis to become sustainable through holistic individualized services, accountability and grace. Bank of America’s support will go directly towards providing food services to the most vulnerable population served by SA Hope Center. The food service center historically services an average of 100 families per week and is currently serving 1,100 families, or over 3,300 people, per week given an increase in demand.
Soldiers’ Angels provides aid and comfort to the men and women of the United States Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, their families and a growing veteran population. Bank of America’s support will help Soldiers’ Angels provide box lunches and mobile food pantries for military families and veterans during this coronavirus pandemic. The organization saw a 40% increase in food requests in March and anticipates this will continue to be the case, if not higher, in April and May.
ChildSafe provides expert care and specialized services to children and adolescents who have been traumatized by abuse, neglect or sexual abuse. The organization has found that child abuse spikes during times of uncertainty and high stress, when financial burdens, interruptions of childcare and school, take its toll on families. With the City of San Antonio’s shelter-in-place order, cases of child abuse in March increased by 18% compared to the same period the year before. ChildSafe will utilize these funds to continue to provide wraparound services to handle the influx of cases they are seeing locally.
The United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County has established a COVID-19 Community Response Fund to help address the immediate and long-term needs of our community. Bank of America’s support will go directly to United Way’s Emergency Childcare Assistance program, which provides childcare for essential workers.
“At Bank of America, supporting our communities and responding to some of the biggest challenges we face in Bexar County is what we do. Many of our local residents and businesses, like others around the world, are hurting during the coronavirus crisis, and by working with leading local nonprofits, we are able to deploy critical resources to immediately address some of their most pressing, basic needs.” – Jessica Miller, Bank of America San Antonio Market President.
VIA and the San Antonio Food Bank are partnering to help make sure homebound residents do not go hungry during these challenging times. VIA operators are currently delivering meals and supplies prepared by Food Bank staff and volunteers to homes and distribution points Monday through Friday throughout San Antonio. (San Antonio Food Bank, 2020)
Since VIA joined the Food Bank’s mission to “fight hunger and feed hope,” operators have distributed more than 650 food packages to nearly 500 locations throughout the city. VIA has continued to operate transit service in a safe environment as part of its COVID-19 response that includes a fare-relief period for all VIA services through April 30 and safe capacity limits on its buses and vans to help maintain social distancing for passengers and operators.
The San Antonio Food Bank serves an estimated 60,000 individuals each week in one of the largest service areas in Texas. That was before the coronavirus shuttered hundreds of businesses and thousands of jobs, leaving many with little resources and few options.
The immense need for local food assistance became abundantly clear when 10,000 people formed long lines and waited several hours to receive rations from the Food Bank’s popup distribution at Trader’s Village on Thursday, April 9. Volunteers and City staff handed out one million pounds of food that day—just one of several distributions the Food Bank staged last week.
VIA’s collaboration with the Food Bank marks the launch of its VIA Cares Program, an extension of its effort to connect our community by organizing available resources to help make ends meet for neighbors in need. Other VIA Cares initiatives that kicked off this month focus on providing Wi-Fi access for students through a partnership with the City of San Antonio, San Antonio Housing Authority and San Antonio ISD and matching VIA volunteers with opportunities to serve. More about VIA’s crisis response is available online.
VIA will continue to deliver food bank supplies as long as resources are available. If you are home bound and in need of food, please call the San Antonio Food Bank at (210) 431-8326 to pre-register or click the link at the Food Bank’s home page and sign up online.
“So many are suffering and struggling in this new environment of COVID-19. Our partnership with VIA and VIAtrans will ease the hunger pains of seniors and those with disabilities by bringing grocery products and household supplies right to their doorstep. This type of innovation and partnership is San Antonio at its finest.” Eric Cooper, President/CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank
The COVID-19 crisis continues to strain the donated food supply generally available to the San Antonio Food Bank. Limited donated food availability is demanding the Food Bank adapt its distribution methods to ensure equitable food access across the Food Bank’s 16-county service territory. The Food Bank is now consolidating the weekly mobile distributions it fulfills and supports during normal business operations to only a handful of “mega distribution sites” for the remainder of the COVID-19 response effort. (San Antonio Food Bank, 2020)
These mega distribution sites are intended to get emergency food to households in immediate need. The Food Bank hopes that its network of 500+ food pantries across the region, along with the many programs and services offered by the Food Bank will continue to meet ongoing needs.
Individuals seeking immediate help can sign up online for an upcoming mega distribution at or by calling the Food Bank’s helpline during normal business hours: 210-431-8326. Pre-registration is required.
This new distribution effort also means a new opportunity for volunteers to engage in acts of service during the COVID-19 crisis. Volunteers will be asked to follow the strict safety protocols put in place by the Food Bank as a response to this crisis. Those interested in volunteering at a public distribution can sign up online and click on “volunteer sign up.”
The San Antonio Food Bank launched its ‘Neighbor Helping Neighbor’ to reach out to individuals and families in need. Photo: Google
After a two-week effort to front-load low-income households with groceries and household supplies, the San Antonio Food Bank is launching a new phase in its coronavirus response: the Neighbor Helping Neighbor relief effort. (San Antonio Food Bank, 2020)
The core components of this effort are two-fold: 1) ensuring every kitchen table in Southwest Texas has the core food items needed to get through this crisis; and, 2) ensuring that all our neighbors who might be elderly and living alone get a visit. The Food Bank will be adding mobile, grab-and-go meals and food distributions daily throughout Southwest Texas. Their website has up-to-date information on how and where individuals can get help.
With the economy suffering and San Antonio already struggling with the highest poverty rate in the country, the Food Bank is prepared to grow with the expanded need. The Food Bank’s website is the best place for information on how to give help. Volunteers are still in need, and one does not need to leave their house to be a good neighbor: every $1 provides 10 pounds of food/supplies to “Neighbor helping Neighbor.” The Food Bank is emphasizing that money donations are preferred over food donations; this allows the Food Bank to target specific items in specific quantity.
“This great city of ours has always been a city of compassion, and our state is known for its hospitality. The crisis in our midst is an opportunity for us to shine and lend support during a neighbor’s season of need. We may have a neighbor near us without food or without a family member to visit and check on them. “Neighbor helping Neighbor” is about stocking the shelf and filling the heart.” – Eric Cooper, President & CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank
As for visits to the elderly and making sure that social isolation is minimized for our older neighbors, Cooper admits it is been something they started to do in the last year, thanks to funding from Humana, and that they learned a lot: “We have been setting the tables for seniors for years, but making home visits to thousands of seniors in the last year or so has reminded us that a table full of food can be empty of love if someone doesn’t have a friend or neighbor. We want our relief effort to be a kitchen table filled with both food and love.”
The San Antonio Food Bank launches program to help community prepare for coronavirus. Photo: Google
On Thursday March 5, the San Antonio Food Bank launched a month-long coronavirus “preparedness and prevention campaign.” The effort aims to reach as many as 300,000 low-income households in the Food Bank’s southwest Texas service territory with a 14-day supply of food and a coronavirus preparedness kit. (San Antonio Food Bank, 2020)
The Food Bank’s 14-day food benefit will consist largely of items in its “12 Most Wanted” list. This includes staple non-perishable items like rice, beans, pasta, soups, canned meats, canned vegetables and fruits, along with diapers and pet food. The coronavirus preparedness kit will contain hand sanitizer and cleaning disinfectant, along with other items available to the Food Bank.
The Food Bank will implement a three-part effort to help deliver their preparedness food benefits and coronavirus prevention kits to those in need: targeted mobile distributions in urban and rural areas of southwest Texas; stocking super-pantries and senior centers with the benefit; and opening up a portion of their warehouse for individual drop-in to secure the benefit.
To meet goals of this month-long campaign, the Food Bank aims to raise $1,500,000, or the equivalent of 15,000,000 lbs. of food/cleaning supplies. The public is invited to make contributions at the Food Bank’s website and every $5 provides one food/cleaning benefit to a person in need, with the goal to distribute 300,000 prevention and preparedness benefits in a month. Volunteers will also play a critical role in this response. If you cannot give food or funds, you are invited to give the gift of time. Special volunteer shifts will be set up for the campaign.
“Our low-income families, particularly our seniors on fixed incomes, don’t have the luxury of stocking up in case of a virus outbreak, and they certainly don’t have the ability to weather a two-week quarantine or leave-without-pay if their place of employment sees a slowdown in business.” – Eric Cooper, President and CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank
San Antonio Burger Week will take place from February 21 through March 1 to benefit the San Antonio Food Bank. Photo: Google
Beginning Friday February 21 through March 1, San Antonio Burger Week, in partnership with HeartBrand Beef and benefiting the San Antonio Food Bank, will pay homage to America’s original sweetheart: the hamburger. (San Antonio Food Bank, 2020)
During the second annual San Antonio Burger Week, more than 30 San Antonio eateries will offer $5 and $8 specialty burgers, with a portion of each plate benefiting the San Antonio Food Bank. Participating restaurants include Armadillo’s Texas Burgers, Babe’s Old Fashioned Food, Benjie’s Munch, Biff Buxby’s Burgers, Big Lou’s Burgers & BBQ, Big’z Burger Joint, Broadway 5050, Burger Boy, Burgerteca, Charlie Brown’s Neighborhood Bar & Grill, Cheesy Jane’s, Chris Madrid’s, Chunky’s Burgers, The Cove, Cover 3, Hopdoddy’s, Johnny Rocket’s at River Center, Mark’s Outing, OrderUp, Papa’s Burgers, Sam’s Burger Joint, Slider Provider, Southtown 101,The Lion & Rose, The Well, Tributary at the Marriott, Tripoli’s Mediterranean Grill and Zinc.
San Antonio Burger Week aims to entice locals to explore new restaurants across San Antonio’s vast culinary landscape. Specialty burgers will range from cheeseburgers to bacon burgers, to veggie burgers and everything in between. Patrons are encouraged to take advantage of special drink pairings and sides and to punch their SA Burger Week Passport for a chance to win prizes. More information, including updates, passport and participating restaurants is available online and on Instagram.
The San Antonio Food Bank takes pride in fighting hunger, feeding hope in their 16 county service area. They believe that no child should go to bed hungry, adults should not have to choose between a hot meal and utilities, nor a senior sacrifice medical care for the sake of a meal. Founded in 1980, The San Antonio Food Bank has quickly grown to serve 58,000 individuals a week in one of the largest service areas in Texas. Their focus is for clients to have food for today but to also have the resources to be self-sufficient in the future.
The PAWliday Pet Food Campaign is taking place through December 20. Photo: DaisyCares
Since 2009, DaisyCares has been helping feed pets of families in need through a partnership with the San Antonio Food Bank. From now through Friday December 20, 2019, DaisyCares is hosting the “PAWliday Pet Food Campaign.” Five years ago, DaisyCares was only serving about 25,000 pets and 10,000 families. Now, DaisyCares serves over 76,000 pets and 29,000 families annually. (San Antonio Food Bank, 2019)
With the holidays fast approaching, DaisyCares is experiencing a higher than normal request for pet food. Now more than ever before, families are faced with tough decisions between putting food on the table or in the bowls of their pets. Programs like DaisyCares help ensure that pets receive the nourishment they need and stay in their family’s home where they belong. Along with food items, DaisyCares is also in need of supplies like new toys/accessories, potty pads and cat litter. Food drop off sites are located throughout the city and include Alamo Heights Pet Clinic, Amigo Animal Hospital and Babcock Hills Veterinary Hospital. A full list of these sites can be found online.
DaisyCares is a 501c3 non-profit organization that helps people care for animals by providing pet food, veterinary care, and animal welfare education to the community. These services help over 76,000 pets and 29,000 pet owners annually.
Food insecurity is defined as a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life. In the United States, food insecurity affects one in nine people. Food insecurity is a social determinant of health, which are conditions in people’s environment that can affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. One in five households served by a local food bank has at least one member who has served in the U.S. military. To make an impact, the San Antonio Food Bank;Humana, a leading health and well-being company; and Conviva Care Centers have partnered on a food and fund drive benefitting military veterans from Veterans Day, November 11 through December 7, 2019. (San Antonio Food Bank, 2019)
As part of the “March Out Hunger” campaign, non-perishable food will be collected at locations throughout San Antonio, including: the Humana neighborhood location (950 S. General McMullen), the Humana office, and five Conviva Care Center locations. In addition to food donations, members of the community can provide monetary donations. Every $10 donation helps the San Antonio Food Bank provide 70 meals and can be done online.
The community is also invited to participate in a Ruck March at the Humana Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio Marathon during the 5K on Saturday, December 7 at 7:30a.m. In the military, soldiers carry a heavily-loaded rucksack, similar to a backpack, over a long distance. To bring awareness to food insecurity among our military and veteran community, participants will carry packs filled with non-perishable food donations and march the 5K route, delivering the food to the San Antonio Food Bank at the finish line. Those interested in marching should email Humana.
Donation stations:
Humana neighborhood location, 950 S. General McMullen, San Antonio, TX
Humana office, 8119 Datapoint Dr., San Antonio
Conviva – Guadalupe Care Center, 1314 Guadalupe St., Ste. 105, San Antonio
Conviva – DeLeon Care Center, 9727 Poteet Jourdanton Fwy., Ste. 108, San Antonio
Conviva – Greco Care Center, 4360 Greco Drive, San Antonio
Conviva – Legacy Place Care Center, 18414 US-281 North, Ste. 104, San Antonio
Conviva – Live Oak Care Center, 12602 Toepperwein Road, Ste. 100, San Antonio
According to the 2018 American Community Survey, San Antonio has earned the dubious recognition of having the highest percentage of people living in poverty among the Top 25 most populous metropolitan areas. (San Antonio Food Bank, 2019)
In the wake of this news, the San Antonio Food Bank is announcing two new capital projects to help meet the need and transform services to individuals living in poverty in the region.
On Friday September 27, Eric Cooper is expected to announce the building of a new Culinary Center targeted for the organization’s westside campus. The facility will have the ability to prepare more than 100,000 meals a day for children facing hunger.
Cooper will also announce the building of a one-of-a-kind apartment complex that they will build, own, and manage on their campus adjacent to their New Braunfels Food Bank. The apartments will be a component of a larger program offered by the Food Bank to help families with children afford to live and thrive in the ever-growing community of New Braunfels.
San Antonio Food Bank
5200 Enrique M. Barrera Pkwy
San Antonio, TX 78227
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