Target Hunger provides food to anyone who is hungry. What makes Target Hunger unique is its approach to solving the underlying causes of hunger. Target Hunger empowers families to become self sufficient by offering training courses in nutrition, self-esteem, English-As-A-Second Language, adult literacy, math and job search workshops.
Target Hunger, a United Way agency, is a nonprofit organization that was established to alleviate hunger in inner-city neighborhoods since 1989. Community leaders such as the late congressman Mickey Leland and Pete Van Horn along with others from the United Way helped to form the Select Committee on Hunger to examine the issue of hunger in Houston. They found an area of town where the needs of the hungry were not being met and Target Hunger was formed. We sit in one of the neediest areas in Houston, the Fifth Ward.
Since its inception, Target Hunger has grown from three food pantries and five community gardens to twelve food pantries, nine senior day sites, and sixteen community gardens. More importantly, Target Hunger matured from a United Way initiative to an independent nonprofit agency in our own right. Target Hunger is now an emergent community-based, volunteer driven organization dedicated to meeting the basic needs of Houstonians.
Each month, Target Hunger provides services to more than 8,000 individuals. Annually, Target Hunger distributes more than 2.5 million pounds of food to those in need. This task is accomplished with the help of numerous volunteers who work more than 30,000 hours each year.
In conjunction with hunger relief, Target Hunger empowers families to become self-sufficient by offering classes in nutrition, literacy, and ESL & GED. Quarterly job search workshops are also offered. Target Hunger also offers programs that focus on youth including an Afterschool Enrichment Program for middle school girls and a Summer Youth Enrichment Program that includes the Langston Family Life Center Boy Scout Troop and a Langston Family Life Center Girl Scout Troop.
