Scott Nishimura
Texas Air National Guard Working to Help Food Bank
The Texas Air National Guard, beginning Friday, is assigning guardsmen from the 136th Airlift Wing in Fort Worth to help pack food at the Tarrant Area Food Bank headed for distribution to families through community pantries and drive-through sites.
The 136th, based at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, sent 30 guardsmen on Friday to work at a temporary Food Bank warehouse in the headquarters offices of the Cowtown Marathon in The Foundry District and at three community pantries the Food Bank serves. Guardsmen will be deployed five days a week at the Food Bank indefinitely, Julie Butner, executive director, said in an interview.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott activated the Guard in March to assist in community response to COVID-19. The Food Bank stopped assigning volunteers to pack food in March, and has used staff members and laid-off restaurant workers paid by a nonprofit instead.
“This was available to us at no charge,” Butner said of the Guardsmen. “The governor opened it up.”
The Food Bank provides foods to 330 community pantries, and, with COVID-19, also has distributed food boxes directly to families via drive-through sites. Distributions have risen dramatically. The Food Bank’s main warehouse in Fort Worth is designed to move 50 million pounds of food per year but currently is experiencing a rate of 65 million pounds per year, Butner said.
The Cowtown Marathon – Butner is a runner and friends with the Marathon’s executive director, Heidi Swartz — agreed to donate temporary warehouse space in its headquarters to the Food Bank. The Food Bank on Friday began using the space to pack food. The gift is a significant savings for the Food Bank, Butner said.
“They’re saving us about $10,000 a month,” Butner said.
Swartz said the Marathon considers the gift “indefinite” as the community works its way out of COVID-19. The Marathon ran its annual race weekend in late February, “and then this happened,” Swartz said. Other races and training programs the Marathon runs are now “virtual.”
“We’ve got the vacant space, so we might as well let them use it,” Swartz said.
The Food Bank also is looking for temporary warehouse space in Parker County to better serve demand there, Butner said.
It’s looking for 40,000 square feet, climate-controlled, including a 10,000-square-foot walk-in cooler and 5,000-square-foot freezer.
Friday, the Guardsmen — including ones assigned to maintenance, services, and the chaplain’s unit — were putting together boxes of produce and pantry items as part of a new partnership with Meals on Wheels of Tarrant County and Catholic Charities Fort Worth to serve homebound seniors. Meals on Wheels is contributing five frozen ready-to-eat meals. Catholic Charities will distribute the kits to homebound seniors.
Guardsmen will work at the Food Bank five days a week, eight hours a day, Butner said. The output is about 1,000 boxes a day.
Butner said it will be some time before the Food Bank will be ready to resume its volunteer model. “I think it’s going to be a really long time before we can resume our volunteer model,” she said. “That’s a 24-month outlook.”
