Tarrant Area Food Bank

Results: Tarrant Area Food Bank distributes about 600,000 pounds of produce each month to more than 270 partner agencies in Tarrant County and 12 surrounding counties. Between Partner Agencies, Mobile Pantries, Food for Kid’s programs and SNAP – TAFB is providing access to more than 515,000 nutritious meals to those in need each week.

Programs: Tarrant area food bank, founded in 1982, is a primary source of donated food for 270 plus hunger relief agencies and feeding programs in fort worth, texas and 13 surrounding counties. In fy 2017, tarrant area food bank provided access to 26. 1 million nutritious meals through its network of partner agencies, mobile solutions, nutrition education and social service programs. These meals were provided in the form of bags of groceries for clients to take home, hot meals served on site or healthy snacks served during a group activity. Of all individuals served, over 40 percent were children.

tarrant area food bank (tafb) offers six unique feeding programs that focus on the nutritional needs of children. (1) after school feeding program feeds children who receive subsidized meals at school but cannot rely on having dinner at home. (2) weekend back packs / summer packs provides back packs filled with child friendly nonperishables for students and their school aged siblings. (3) in school snack programs snacks are available to at risk kids on an as needed basis to help them focus during the school day. (4) school pantries once a month a tafb truck delivers food to schools in low income areas; 95% of the food is fresh fruits and vegetables. (5) summer feeding program tafb partners with the usda to provide free daily meals to children 18 and under in targeted low income areas. (6) farmers market nutritional program -- tafb partners with the texas department of agriculture to provide locally sourced fresh produce during the summer months to women and children. In total, tafb and its partners provided access to over 880,000 meals through these kid friendly, family focused programs.

tarrant area food banks (tafb) educational and outreach programs primarily consist of a culinary arts school, a series of nutritional education classes, a community garden and social services. Tafbs community kitchen is primarily a learning center that provides life skills and culinary arts job training but also doubles as a production kitchen that produces an average of 6,000 meals per month. The students benefit from receiving hands-on instruction from professional chefs and by developing job ready interpersonal skills to help with job search and retention 85% of graduates find full time employment after graduation. The community benefits by receiving 72,000 nutritious meals prepared from food that would otherwise have gone to waste. Cooking matters is a hands-on six week cooking class that is offered to adults, teens and families in low income areas. The classes cover meal preparation, grocery shopping, food budgeting and nutrition. Over the past twelve months, over 700 people have participated in these classes and prepared over 8,600 nutritious meals for themselves and their families. Tafbs community gardens program consists of a network of organizations helping to feed the hungry through local, sustainable fruit and vegetable gardens. Tafb provides the leadership and technical support for this program through its learning garden. At the learning garden, tafb offers hands on training in growing fresh produce to bolster nutrition and physical activity. We also provide the community with access to our seed bank, the ability to borrow tools and equipment and an opportunity for garden enthusiast to give back to the community. Over two tons of fresh produce from 16 urban gardens was provided directly to garden participants, food pantries, and local soup kitchens.