Grapevine boasts that it's one of the best places to visit in Texas, but the pandemic put the brakes on tourism and the city's hospitality industry.
"That has a significant and wide-ranging detrimental effect on the families that work in those locations as well as that support the families that work there. So we've seen a significant number of families that are completely out of income," said Shonda Schaefer, executive director of Grapevine Relief and Community Exchange, GRACE.
Families find help at the nonprofit GRACE, and fighting hunger is of the things it does best. The Feed Our Kids program does that every day during the summer.
"These kinds of programs where we can feed the children, we can give the families a little bit of relief in terms of their family budget," Schaefer said.
"I'm really grateful because there are a lot of families struggling right now, especially with the kids not going to school. And it's harder for moms. And I'm a mom. Three meals a day, every day. It's a hustle," Reyna Razo said.
On Fridays another program, Grace Grocery Giveaway stocks families with fresh produce and kitchen staples for the weekend.
"In conjunction with Tarrant Area Food Bank and several other corporations in the community, we provide fresh fruits and vegetables," Schaefer explained.
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Cars line up for the once-a-week drive-thru and leave with one less worry.
Razo saw the worries on her mom's face as she was growing up in Grapevine. GRACE helped her family then and now as a working mom of two, Razo is grateful the support is still there.
"So now my kids are going through the same thing that I did when I was a little girl. And I'm so blessed and thankful for all of this," she said.
Its work in fighting hunger earned GRACE a $35,000 Project Innovation grant from the Comcast Universal Foundation.
Money and volunteers are always appreciated but Schaefer says there's something else the nonprofit could also use.
"We really have a lot of hard stories here and just to include these families in your prayers would be a real blessing," she said.
