The North Texas Food Bank (NTFB) has officially confirmed the news of receiving a $1 million grant from Walmart Foundation and Feeding America®.
According to certain reports, the stated grant comes as a part of one ongoing, multi-year partnership, which happens to be geared towards strengthening food banks and agency partners in rural and underserved communities affected by food insecurity.
More on the same would reveal how these newly-acquired funds will support four NTFB partner pantries, helping them increase their capacity to collect food donations from local grocers and distribute them to families facing hunger. You see, in the North Texas Food Bank’s 13-county service area alone, nearly 778,000 people face hunger, including 1 in every 5 children.
Markedly enough, these Retail Agency Capacity Building Grants were awarded to a total of 20 Feeding America partner food banks to enhance their retail rescue programs. In case you weren’t aware, under the given programs, fresh, frozen and, shelf-stable foods are donated by grocers for pickup by food banks and agency partners. Going by the available details, a grand total of $17 million was awarded to the 20 Feeding America food banks through the grant, including $6 million provided by the Walmart Foundation.
“The North Texas Food Bank and our Feeding Network rely on the generosity of supporters like the Walmart Foundation to continue our fight against hunger,” said Trisha Cunningham, President and CEO of North Texas Food Bank. “By strengthening our network’s capacity, we help our partners secure the resources that allow them to meet the needs of more neighbors in their communities. This generous grant will substantially increase the food available to the 1 in 7 individuals facing hunger in our area.”
Talk about the North Texas pantries which will benefit from the new $1 million funding, they include Care Center Ministries, which is essentially a 24-foot refrigerated truck. Next up, there is Christian Community Action, a 26-foot refrigerated truck and a produce cooler.
Then, we have Chocolate Mint Foundation, a foundation that serves people through 26-foot refrigerated truck and an electric forklift. The final beneficiary here would be White Rock Center of Hope. This particular pantry includes two produce coolers, a refrigerated merchandiser, a freezer merchandiser, iPads, plastic grocery carts, picking carts, gondola shelving, and bins.
Among other things, we must mention that, for nearly two decades now, Walmart, the Walmart Foundation and Sam’s Club have supported food banking operations, while simultaneously facilitating retail rescue in partnership with Feeding America, local food banks, and partner agencies to provide fresh, nourishing food to people facing hunger across communities nationwide.
To contextualize the scale on which this effort has been conducted, we can acknowledge that Walmart Foundation has, thus far, funded more than 200 vehicles to help with local food recovery efforts, invested in critical research to identify opportunities and capture more surplus food, as well provided millions of dollars in grants to build infrastructure to serve neighbors in need more equitably. Beyond that, we must also mention that Walmart and Sam’s Club, on their part, have donated more than 7.5 billion pounds of food since 2006.
“Local food banks are key to making retail food rescue programs successful and expanding access to healthy food for people in our communities, which is why it’s so important to invest in their ability to innovate and efficiently pick up food donations,” said Julie Gehrki, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at the Walmart Foundation. “The Walmart Foundation’s investment builds on our continued support of the Feeding America network as we work together to strengthen the charitable meal system and end hunger.”
