Kids Cafe Volunteers Needed!

Kids Cafe is an afterschool feeding program designed to combat childhood hunger. This program provides children with nutritious evening meals in a safe environment.
Dedicated volunteers are needed to commit two hours after school, Monday through Friday, on a continual basis during the school year. Three Kids Cafe locations are currently seeking one or two volunteers per location. Duties include helping serve meals and light paperwork/roll-taking. Background checks are required
Where: Kids Cafe's at Phea Boys and Girls Club

Wilson Boys and Girls Club

Optimist Boys and Girls Club
Time: Monday through Friday, 3-5pm
Contact: Becky Jennings at 806-763-3003 or Tammy Hester at 806-544-1332

Volunteer Coaches Needed
The West Texas Running Club is dedicating it's annual Prairie Dog Run on March 8th to the South Plains Food Bank and the Kids Cafe Program. Proceeds from the run will help feed hungry children at Kids Cafe Sites in Lubbock and other South Plains communities.
Volunteer running coaches are needed to create "Team Kids Cafe!" at each participating site. In addition to eating nutritious meals, kids will have an opportunity to join in the Prairie Dog Run. Along the way, kids can see how eating and exercise go hand in hand for a healthy lifestyle.
Volunteer coaches will meet two times a week, January through March. No experience is needed! If you are interested in volunteering as a coach, please sign up with Becky Jennings at 806-763-3003, or email at volunteer@spfb.org.

Unemployment down... hunger up

Recently, Texas Workforce announced that the unemployment rate for Lubbock and the region dipped to 3.5%. In spite of low unemployment, the South Plains Food Bank and our network of 230 agencies continues to feel the pressure of increased request for food assistnace.

Over the past two decades, The South Plains Food Bank, a Member of America's Second Harvest-The Nation's Food Bank Network, has witnessed a new and disturbing trend: employment is no longer a sufficient means to escape poverty. According to Hunger in America 2006, 36% of families served by the America's Second Harvest Network have one or more family member working. Additionally, nearly 18 million people live in working poor families.

The same study indicates the number of working families served by SPFB is in line with national averages with 33% of families served having one or more familiy members working. This fragile existence forces many people to make choices between paying rent or mortgage and putting food on the table. It forces some to choose between paying for utilities and buying food, while others struggle to choose between healthcare and a meal.

The South Plains Food Bank and soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters and other hunger-relief organizations across the South Plains are seeing drastic increases in the number of working families in need of our services, children with working parents living in poverty, and people struggling to make ends meet.

When you volunteer at the South Plains Food Bank or one of our agencies, when you donate funds, and when you tell others about hunger and the South Plains Food Bank, you are making a difference in the lives of the hungry.

For more information on the South Plains Food Bank, visit http://www.spfb.org/.

Public Assistance Outreach

July was AWESOME!

With the summer flying by us, I have stayed very busy with
outreaches, and referrals from our agencies. Thank you to them!!
I was able to outreach some of our rural agencies this month like Loaves & Fishes- Morton, Kent Co. Food Bank-Jayton, Aspermont Food Bank-Aspermont, and Hamlin Food Bank-Hamlin. I was able to outreach and help many people in those counties and help them with the application process, or just answer the many questions/myths that they had about the Foodstamp/Mediciad/CHIP Process. It was very successful.

With summer rapidly ending and school about to start I look forward to August and working with several other agencies with their Back to School Fairs that are going on, and reaching even more people.

YTD Monthly FOODSTAMP allotment: $28,505
This amount is from the foodstamp applications that the SPFB has turned in.

Agencies that I did outreach with/or referred potential clients to me:
Catholic Family Sevices Lubbock Meals on Wheels
Across the Street Ministries-Lubbock MHMR-Lubbock
Matthews Learning Center-Lubbock Bayless Elementary-Lubbock
Hutchinson Middle School-Lubbock Tubbs Elementary-Lubbock
Children’s Protective Services-Lubbock The Bridge-Lubbock
Neighborhood House-Lubbock Family Promise-Lubbock
Covenant Counseling-Lubbock Loaves & Fishes-Morton
Buckner’s-Lubbock Parenting Cottage-Lubbock
St John’s United Methodist Church-Lubbock Hope Community of Shalom
Community Health Center of Lubbock Superior Health Plan
Salvation Army Aspermont Food Bank
Hamlin Food Bank Kent Co. Food Bank
Early Learning Centers of Lubbock Hope Community of Shalom

Non-Agencies that I did outreach at/or referred potential clients to me:
Slaton Housing Authority
Nurscare-Slaton & Tahoka

If you or someone you know needs assistance with Foodstamps, Medicaid, or CHIP please call me at 763-3003 or 438-8194.

Feeding Summer Fun!

The carefree days of summer days of lemonade, swimming pools and backyard cookouts are finally upon us. For too many of Lubbock's children, however, summer is a season of hunger. When school doors close for vacation, two key safeguards against childhood hunger the School Breakfast Program and the national School Lunch program are no longer available. To help bridge the nutrition gap during the summer months, the South Plains Food Bank is once again sponsoring the federally-funded Summer Food Service Program.

Tammy Hester is the Executive Chef and Program Director for the Food Bank's Summer Food Service Program. She says the program serves and average of 400-500 breakfasts and 500-600 lunches every day. Hester says the Summer Food Service Program provided at total of 15,975 meals in the month of June alone.

The South Plains Food Bank offers 12 summer food sites. They are :

Mae Simmons Community Center
Phea Boys and Girls Club
Copper Rawlings Community Center
Vandelia Church
Parkway/Guadalupe Neighborhood Center
Wilson Boy and Girls Club
Optimist Boys and Girls Club
Maggie Trejo Community Center
Asbury United Methodist Church
Central Church of Christ
GRUB
Bridge 2 Success

It is not too late to get involved with the Summer Food Service program. Anyone who comes to a participating site will be fed, though food is provided on a “first come first served” basis. Meal times at participating sties vary, but breakfast is generally from 8 to 9am and lunch is generally served around noon. The last day of the Summer Food program will be August 17th. Classes in LISD resume on August 29th.

In the future, SPFB hopes to sponsor even more sites, working towards the day when no child in Lubbock faces an empty stomach when the school bell rings for the last time.

"Food Banks Go Hungry"

That’s the headline for an article by writer Lauren Etter appearing in the today's edition of the Wall Street Journal on page B1. Food Banks, like the South Plains Food Bank, have seen a decline in the pounds of donated food given to us by grocers and food manufacturers.

The culprit? Better supply chain management and a drive for greater efficiency by food manufacturers have combined to reduce overproduction. That translates into less food available to donate to charities such as Food Banks and pantries. It’s a trend the South Plains Food Bank has been seeing first hand for the past several years.

Food manufacturers like Kraft, Kellogs and others continue to donate significant amounts of food to America’s Second Harvest some of which winds up serving the hungry here in West Texas. But the quantity of food coming through national donors has declined. To their credit, national companies and their foundations are supporting Food Banks in new ways through monetary donations.

While food donations are down, the number of hungry people in our country and in our region is increasing. It would be easy say that since food donations are down we’ll just cut back on the amount of food we put in food boxes or reduce the number of people we serve. To do so would be a disservice to both the hungry and to the volunteers and donors who join with us to feed the hungry. The mission of SPFB isn’t to just distribute what we have. It’s to feed the hungry. In a broader sense, it is to end hunger.

As food manufacturers and grocers have improved their ways of doing business, food banks have responded in new and innovative ways. SPFB is no exception. We are handling more fresh produce and dairy product, we are raising funds to purchase food for programs like the Kids Cafe, and we are growing, distributing and, through Breedlove, manufacturing, our own food.

All this to say that local food drives like the just completed Letter Carrier Food Drive (which brought in over 65,000 pounds) take on new significance as we work to insure we have enough food to meet the needs of the hungry. Working through our network of agencies, SPFB is providing food for more than 19,000 folks each week. That’s a lot of groceries!

Getting Ahead vs. Getting Fed

Grace, my soon to be thirteen year old daughter, is looking forward to the end of school and the beginning of Summer! She has a busy schedule planned. So it was with some interest that I read, an article by Sue Shellenbarger in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, "Helping overbooked kids cutback."

The story focused on the stress and anxiety children are feeling because their lives are becoming so busy with camps, music lessons, and all kinds of activities. The idea is that all these extra curricular activities give our children an advantage as the grow up and prepare for their life's vocation. I won't argue the fact.

At the same time, the end of school has a different impact for nearly 1 in 4 of the children across the South Plains. The end of school means the end of school breakfast and lunch programs that serve many of these youngsters. The meals they receive at school gives them the energy to learn, to play, and to develop into productive members of our community.

This summer, their focus won't be on activities to help them get ahead. Instead, they are looking for place to get fed. The South Plains Food Bank begins its Summer Lunch Program as soon as school lets out. In addition, we will start seeing more children showing up at our community soup kitchens.

Hopefully, getting fed this summer will help these children get ahead when school begins this fall.

My First U-Can Share Food Drive

I have been the volunteer coordinator at the South Plains Food Bank since May. This week I was able to experience the U-Can Share food drive for the first time. I was amazed as to how much preparation went into the event. Since October, I have helped plan every detail of the food drive with the U-Can Share committee. I was so excited when it finally kicked off this week. Every night at six and ten o'clock, I would tune in to KCBD 11 to watch the live broadcast at United Supermarket to see how many pounds of food had been collected.
On Wednesday, I finally got to go out to the site. When we got there, my husband and I helped organize the groups of schoolchildren for the six o'clock news broadcast. All of the kids were so excited to be on the news and proudly annouced how many pound of food their school had collected. After the broadcast, Donna Chandler explained to us how everything was done at the collection site. As the sun went down and it got colder out, we huddled by the space heater and waited for donations. I was suprised by how few donations came in, but it was probably due to the cold weather! Overall, it was fun to be a part of the U-Can Share food drive. I was amazed by how the community came together and got involved.
Back at the food bank, its been pretty busy. Groups have been calling me every single day wanting to volunteer. Everyone wants to get involved, not only with the U-Can Share food drive, but also at the food bank. We have had school groups, church groups, and businesses out here volunteering every day, helping us prepare for Christmas. It has been a fun experience for me, and it is wonderful that so many people are willing to help out the food bank at such an important time of year!