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Lori Pope
Agency Relations Manager
Micheline Hynes
Nutrition Services Manager
Ginger Cleveland
Food for Kids Manager
Vicky Martinez
SNAP Manager
Barbara Higbee
Community Kitchen Coordinator
Romy Basil
Community Initiatives Coordinator
Robyn Morgan
Resource Coordinator
Kay Dillard
Director of Programs
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About Us
Tarrant Area Food Bank is the distribution hub of a 13-county network of hunger-relief charities and social services centers. We distribute donated product from our 69,000 square-foot warehouse in Fort Worth to our 300 partner agencies that serve abuse victims, children, the elderly, the chronically ill, the unemployed, the working poor, the homeless and other Texans in need.
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Tarrant Area Food Bank 2600 Cullen Street
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Useful Websites
Focuses much of its research on childhood obesity issues. Their goal is to help all children and families eat well, especially those in communities at highest risk for obesity. Their goal is to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015 by improving access to affordable healthy foods and increasing opportunities for physical activity in schools and communities across the nation.
The leading national nonprofit organization working to improve public policies and public-private partnerships to eradicate hunger and undernutrition in the United States. FRAC works with hundreds of national, state and local nonprofit organizations, public agencies, corporations and labor organizations to address hu nger, food insecurity and their root cause, poverty.
Details hunger facts at the local community level. In August, 2011 child food insecurity data was added and updates will include 2010 USDA and Census Bureau data in early 2012. Select your state and county from the interactive map below and start learning more about the residents struggling with hunger.
USDA Food Desert
You can locate your city tract and the map shows you areas of need and the number of people that live within that food desert. A food
desert is any area in the industrialized world
where healthful, affordable food is difficult to obtain.
NY Times Interactive Map
This interactive map breaks down the demographics of SNAP recipients into several categories and shows the rate of change from two years prior.
USDA SNAP Dashboard.
A dashboard look at the SNAP characteristics in your area. This is divided by Congressional Districts.
Helpful virtual recruitment sites include:
www.VolunteerMatch.com
www.VCNT.org (Volunteer Connection; must have a membership with VCNT)
www.Idealist.org |
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Food for Kids Expands Programs
Summer Feeding 2012
While summer is several months away, February is the time to start making plans to participate in the Summer Food Service Program. During the school year, there are 2.8 million Texas students on the free or reduced lunch program, who often go without consistent meals on the weekends and holidays. The summer break is a particularly difficult time for such students. Although free meals are available to free or reduced eligible students in the summer, only 12% of eligible students participate in the summer meals feeding program, according to the Texas Department of Agriculture. This gap is often due to a lack of convenient locations or transportation.
If a church or nonprofit agency is located in an area where 50 percent or more of children under 18 are eligible for the free or reduced lunch program, that organization can be reimbursed for two meals served to a child each day, regardless of the child's eligibility. The church or agency can either prepare the meals in-house and be reimbursed, or they can utilize an outside vendor to provide meals. If you would like to work with Tarrant Area Food Bank on closing the gap on childhood hunger this summer, please contact us.
Kids Café Program to Receive Federal Funding
This Spring TAFB will become a sponsor for the Child and Adult Care Food Program. This will allow At-Risk After School meal programs to receive food or federal reimbursement for providing meals that meet Texas Department of Agriculture meal pattern standards. Any agency that is currently providing meals or is interested in starting a program may contact us for more information.
New Program Manager Joins Food for Kids:
Ginger Cleveland began working as the Food for Kids Program Manager in November 2011. She comes from a nonprofit background specializing in school programs and government funding. She is tasked with streamlining and expanding Tarrant Area Food Bank's Food for Kids Programs.
If you are interested in participating in any of the above programs, please contact Ginger.
Ginger Cleveland | Food for Kids Manager |
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New Year Brings New Programs
in Agency Relations
Client Documentation Reports
Among the changes Agency Relations has made is the improved method of submitting your monthly Client Documentation reports. Most of you have taken advantage of sending your report directly to our new Agency Reports mailbox (agencyreports@tafb.org) where Linda and Ruby can quickly process your report. Another change is that agencies that do not submit their report by the 10th of the month (or next business day if over a weekend) will be put on product hold on the 11th (or next business day). If you have questions about this process, please contact Linda at linda.rodriquez@tafb.org or 817-870-2533.
Agency Ranking Program
As part of our ongoing plans to help our Partner Agencies build their capacity, we will be sending you a Capacity Assessment tool. This tool is designed to evaluate a broad range of criteria and provide you with a more detailed picture of the standards we will be looking for in determining agency ranks. It is only four pages long and is designed for your internal use. We also hope that this tool will generate discussion in your program and potentially provide you with some ideas for changes that will help you better serve your community.
During the first quarter of 2012, we will be inviting some of you to participate in round table conversations as we explore ways to provide the kind of benefits and training that will be helpful to you.
Lori Pope | Agency Relations Manager |
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Shopping Matters Offers Tips for Budget-minded Clients
We all know that eating healthy is important for us and our families. However, it might be surprising to learn just how affordable healthy eating can be. What if you could stretch your budget and eat great tasting, healthy foods every day of the week? That's what Shopping Matters for Adults is all about. This hands-on grocery store tour will help participants make the most of the food dollars they have and help their family to get the best nutrition possible. Tour members will learn to budget food money, and buy healthy ingredients to prepare meals that the whole family can enjoy. They also receive helpful shopping tips and delicious recipes to take home with them.
Think a Shopping Matters workshop at your local grocery store would be beneficial to those you serve? Contact Lindsey Sirowy, Cooking Matters Coordinator at Lindsey.Sirowy@tafb.org or (817) 332-9177 x107, for more information.
Micheline Hynes | Nutrition Services Manager |
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Community Initiatives Develops Programs to Help Fill Gaps
in Service
The Mobile Pantry Program served 26,584 families and distributed over 1.2 million pounds of food within one year through the seven sites. The program allows TAFB to distribute fresh produce inventory quickly to people in need in Tarrant and Hood counties. Each site has seen an increase in clients, some serving as many as 800 families within the 2 hours of distribution.
The Westbound satellite program has started delivering food to Palo Pinto and Erath counties. The delivery takes place every other Monday and drops off the products in Stephenville and Mineral Wells for the area Partner Agencies. For a nominal transportation fee, agencies can pick up their pallets of food at a location close to them and receive all the products they need to serve their clients. Two other satellites also deliver food to Denton/Gainesville and Meridian/Hillsboro. If an agency is interested in becoming part of the satellite delivery program, please contact Terri Jewell at terri.jewell@tafb.org.
Romy Basil | Community Initiatives Coordinator |
SNAP Benefits Help Strengthen Local Economies
TAFB's SNAP department completed the 2011 year doing 2,942 interviews from January to December. According to the "SNAP Impact Calculator" provided by Feeding America the estimated SNAP Benefits generated was $7,612,506 and the Local Economic Impact was $13,626,386 back in to our communities.
With the holidays behind us and a New Year ahead of us we are back out in the community ready to assist with SNAP as well as other Health and Human Service Commissions programs. Looking for assistance in your area, meet our staff:
Dani Folks - Arlington, Hood & Somervell Counties
817-797-1206
Brenda Olivarez - North Tarrant County 817-681-8290
Maria Zambrano - South Tarrant County, Palo Pinto, Parker & Johnson Counties 682-465-5985
Ida Rivera - Northeast Tarrant County, Erath County
682-465-5670
Imelda Hernandez - Denton, Cooke & Wise Counties
817-797-1268
Vicky Martinez - Hamilton, Bosque & Hill Counties 682-438-4862
Vicky Martinez | SNAP Outreach Manager |
Community Kitchen -
The "Super Eight"
Class 16 ended the curriculum section of their culinary training January 6. They began Phase II of their training - an internship out in the "real world". As part of their two week internship, each student participated in the Jewel Charity Ball Saturday, January 7 benefiting Cook Children's Hospital. Graduation celebration for Class 16 will be Saturday, January 21 at 10 a.m. at Tarrant Area Food Bank. Please join us in honoring our "Super Eight" amazing graduates!
The 10 students selected for Class 17 will begin their 14 week culinary training on Tuesday, January 17.
Since May, the production side of the Community Kitchen has increased its average number of one pound meals from 5,000 to approximately 10,000 each month. These nutritious meals are available for distribution to the Food Bank's Partner Agencies.
Barbara Higbee | Community Kitchen Coordinator |
Steps to Improve Volunteer Recruitment
Volunteers come from many places in our community. Are you tapping into the resources that will draw the perfect volunteer to your organization?
Here are a few quick tips on making your recruitment efforts go farther.
1. Be clear - Write detailed job descriptions with titles before you begin recruitment. By having a list of specific expectations and responsibilities, you are more likely to get the right person in the position. Be sure to give appropriate titles, such as "Data Analyst" rather than the ambiguous "Volunteer."
2. Use your website and social media - Update your volunteer opportunities regularly. Be sure to entice new volunteers by sharing about the impact on families and the community. Also, make sure that your contact information is easy to find.
3. Target key audiences - What kind of volunteer are you looking for? College students? Senior citizens? Youth groups? Medical professionals? Be sure to recruit in the right places to attract the people you want volunteering for your program. Younger generations tend to hone in on Internet-based recruiting and advertisements, while seniors may respond better to flyers and in-person visits.
More recruitment tips may be found at http://www.energizeinc.com/art/subj/recruit.html
Robyn Morgan l Resource Coordinator |
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