Irving Food Bank Damaged During Historic Flood

The historic flooding that washed through North Texas two weeks ago is still causing problems for many people.

The warehouse for the non-profit, Irving Schools Foundation, was damaged in the storm and subsequent flooding.

“We lost furniture, all of our shelving units that we store the food got damaged. They’re wood and they soaked up the water,” Irving Schools Foundation CEO Crystal Scanio said. “My number one priority is the safety of our children. If we had any kind of mold that grows… we just have to get rid of it. Our $9,000 used forklift was sitting in the water for 2 days.”

Volunteers showed up after the storm and helped the organization get to the point where they were able to still get meals to the kids, but the damage to the warehouse is making it difficult to keep up with their programs.

Get DFW local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC DFW newsletters.

The group serves 1,500 meals to students each week and has become a lifeline to many families in tough times.

Since the start of the pandemic and now with inflation issues, they’ve not only helped out the Irving school students, but also their families.

“As a small non-profit, that for the past few years hasn’t been able to host a fundraiser because of the pandemic, we don’t have any extra reserves. All of our funding has been allocated and over allocated,” Scanio said. “Our demands for our services have been up 200% and our funding has been down 60%. So, we were already in dire straits going into this flood.”