Hitting the Road with Our Mobile Pantry

By on August 26, 2021   /   All   /   Leave a comment

Responding to Community Needs

Our Mobile Pantry set up for the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony at Magnolia Multi-Service Center.

Target Hunger’s pantry program operates at five locations including churches and multi-service centers across the nine zip-codes we serve. As a United Way agency, Target Hunger distributed more than 2 million meals to nearly 31,000individuals in 2020. We are grateful to these partners for allowing us the space to serve the community – without them it would be difficult to assist as many as we do. The central locations of these sites have allowed us to become a reliable resource in the communities that need it most.

However, we recognize that there are some neighborhoods where we don’t have brick-and-mortar sites that need those resources too and that families need these locations to be convenient to where they live or work. The solution was to add a pantry on wheels or a Mobile Food Pantry to our fleet!

Guests had the opportunity to tour the pantry before the ceremony began.

Through a $426,000 grant from the Qatar Harvey Fund, we added the Mobile Food Pantry to our fleet in addition to making major enhancements to our warehouse including building a repackage room, and adding a walk-in refrigerator, walk-in freezer, and generator.

The Mobile Food Pantry, a climate-controlled walk-though grocery store, will allow Target Hunger to expand its service and deliver food closer to where clients reside. Families located in the Fifth Ward and the northeast/east neighborhoods of East Houston, Magnolia Park, and Pleasantville will be able to shop for their groceries and go home with about 40 pounds of fresh food and non-perishables.

Chris Bugbee, President & CEO, OneStar; Sandra Wicoff, CEO Target Hunger; includes Fatema Al-Baker, Director of Public Diplomacy Outreach; Samuel J. Louis, Target Hunger Board Member, Partner – Holland & Knight, LLP

Wheels on the Road

Due to the pandemic, the implementation of this new resource had been delayed for months. Finally, on Wednesday, August 25th, we hosted the official Ribbon Cutting ceremony. We held the event at the Magnolia Multi-Service Center in the heart of the Greater East End neighborhood.

Our Board Members and staff excitedly welcomed guests, including Fatema Al-Baker, the Director of Public Diplomacy Outreach for the Embassy of the State of Qatar and Chris Bugbee, President & CEO of OneStar. Guests had the opportunity to take a tour of the Mobile Pantry and have the shopping experience that our clients will enjoy. We then heard from Board Member Sam Louis, Mr. Bugbee, Ms. Al-Baker, and our CEO Sandra Wicoff.

OneStar President & CEO Chris Bugbee said: “The mobile pantry not only addresses the long-term and ongoing effects of Hurricane Harvey, but also builds the resilience of the Houston community to face the realities of 2021 and the challenges that lie ahead. We are proud to partner with Target Hunger and the Qatar Harvey Fund through our Rebuild Texas Fund on this innovative solution to food insecurity.”

A Target Hunger client shops the pantry for the first time.

Finally, the ribbon was cut, and our Mobile Pantry was ready for action. A few of Target Hunger’s current clients attended and had the first opportunity to shop the pantry, including Nancy. When asked about her experience, Nancy said simply, “It’s good to have, really really good.”

We are thrilled to finally have wheels on the road and to be able to serve the community with this new resource. Once in full rotation, the Mobile Food Pantry will provide groceries to 600 families a month. It is designed to be a Choice Pantry where shoppers can select from a range of products to meet their families dietary and cultural preferences. We hope that this pantry serves the community well and with dignity!

 

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The End of Summer

By on August 20, 2021   /   All   /   Leave a comment

Summer is Ending and School is Back in Session

Backpacks donated by UnitedHealthCare are ready to go students in our Summer Breakfast & Lunch Program.

If you’re like us, you’re probably wondering where the summer has gone. It feels like just yesterday we were looking forward to vacations and days on the water that come with the hot summer months. Of course, in Houston, the heat will stay with us as we transition to “fall” and everything that comes with it. At Target Hunger, this also brings the end of our Summer Breakfast & Lunch program. In June, we told you about the Ride United program, a partnership between United Way Worldwide and DoorDash. Through this partnership, this summer over 200 households received food delivered directly to their door through the Summer Breakfast & Lunch program. Families received five food distributions between June and August. Each food box contained easy-to-prepare breakfast and lunch food intended to last for ten days or 56 meals, plus snacks.

One of the families that received food and backpacks from our last summer distribution.

August 13 was our final distribution before school went back in session. Staff showed up to the warehouse in the early hours that Friday morning to organize our the boxes for the DoorDash drivers. Thanks to UnitedHealthCare, there was one additional surprise for the families – new backpacks! UnitedHealthCare donated backpacks for all students in our Summer Breakfast & Lunch program, which were filled with sanitizing wipes, hand sanitizer, and masks. We are grateful for partnerships like this that allow us to give more to those who need it most.

Around 8am the DoorDash drivers began arriving. Staff and volunteers worked swiftly to load the backseats and trunks of cars with all the supplies the families were soon to receive. By 10, every car had been loaded and sent off with the last of our summer deliveries.

 

Some Things End, Others Remain the Same

A DoorDash driver loading his car for distribution.

While our Summer Breakfast & Lunch program has come to an end, the DoorDash delivery program is still a vital resource. Over 900 households, including our seniors, remain in the delivery program through the end of 2021. We are grateful to be able to continue to serve some of the most vulnerable in our community in such a safe and effective way. 

As the school year begins, we are also happy to continue serving families through our Pantry Program. When they enroll, families can continue to receive distributions of fresh and canned goods each month.

Our Pantry boxes packed and ready to go!

We are looking forward to fall and the cooler weather it will hopefully bring. Happy learning to all the students as you begin a new year. Thank you to all the teachers and school staff for your dedication to Houston’s students as we continue to deal with this pandemic. We hope everyone has a happy, safe return to school!

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Meet Our Garden Intern!

By on August 11, 2021   /   All   /   Leave a comment

Meet Our Garden Intern

We have a new member on team Target Hunger – Yessenia Rincon! Through the end of the year Target Hunger’s Garden Intern will be not only be helping our gardens to grow but will be spending half her time researching and developing educational curriculum. The position was generously funded by the Jacob and Terese Hershey Foundation. 

We asked Yessenia to share a few things about herself, and here is what she had to say:

My name is Yessenia Rincon, I was born and raised in Houston, Texas. I attended University of Houston- Downtown where I got my bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts. In my free time I like to go to museums and play volleyball.

What interested me the most about this internship is the hands-on experience – I love the outdoors and getting my hands dirty. I would do gardening as a hobby, but I also wanted to incorporate it as part of my lifestyle and routine. I get to learn something new every day and pass that knowledge to my family and community.

What I’m hoping to learn from the garden team is how to be more self-reliant and sustainable when it comes to growing any type of food and making it part of my life. I want to know what makes a successful garden and ensure my neighbors are food secure for the long run.

My favorite thing about working in the garden is starting my morning with fresh air and sunlight, as well as working with the garden team, they are great!

8 Questions with Yessenia

Q: Where do you most want to visit in the world?

A: I would like to visit Finland, Hawaii, and France.

Q: What is your proudest accomplishment?

A: My proudest accomplishment is finishing college.

 

Q: What’s your favorite movie?

A: My favorite movies are Grown Ups 1 &2.

 

Q: What’s your favorite way to spend a day off?

A: My favorite way to spend the day off is by watching movies with my sisters and having a bunch of different snacks.

 

Q: What are your favorite ice cream flavors?

A: My favorite ice cream flavors are vanilla and strawberry.

 

Q: What’s on your bucket list?

A: For my bucket list, I want to fly in a hot air balloon, ride a zip line, go on a cruise, ski in Italy, do a road trip to different national parks around the US, and go visit the MET Museum in New York.

 

Q: If you could win an Olympic medal for any sport, real or fake, what would it be?
A: It would be volleyball, gymnastics, and ballet.

 

Q: What’s your favorite family recipe?

A: My favorite family recipe is tamales. I love eating them during the holidays.

 

Welcome to Yessenia!  Target Hunger is excited to have her grow with our team, grow the garden, and grow Target Hunger’s long-term vision to have robust educational programming for families to find out where their food comes from, how to grow it, and how to turn it into healthy and affordable meals.

 

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