Calling all volunteers; the Tarrant Area Food Bank needs you!
"We cannot help the community without help from people in our community," Tarrant Area Food Bank President and CEO Julie Butner said.
The need for food assistance increased during the pandemic and has remained high with inflation hitting families. Add to that, supply chain issues have cut food donations to TAFB.
"So it's the perfect storm," Butner said. "It's all happening at the same time. We don't have enough volunteers, and right now, we don't have enough food, we don't have enough funding for purchasing food."
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Cars lined up as far as the eye could see during the pandemic for TAFB's Mega Mobile Markets food distributions. At that time, the National Guard helped distribute food. Now it's left to staff and volunteers.
The mass distributions are a shift in how TAFB fulfills its mission, which makes it more personal.
"Before the pandemic, the food bank was really a distribution arm, and so we never saw first-hand what people who were experiencing crisis and hunger were really grappling with. And we did see that during the pandemic," Butner said, pointing out that volunteering is an essential and humbling experience. "Hearing about it from me, or in the media does not have the same impact as seeing your neighbors, people that you live with day in and day out, that are really struggling."
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Without volunteers, TAFB cannot hold the Mega Mobile Markets food distributions.
If you would like to volunteer, you can find more information here.
