Yearly archive for 2021

A Thanksgiving to Remember

What clients received last year in our Thanksgiving grocery distribution.

This year, as we did last year, Target Hunger is hosting a very special Thanksgiving Distribution. Families in the communities we serve struggle daily with the cost of groceries, so when special holidays come each year, it can be even more difficult to afford the special products associated with the holidays. Thanksgiving, the most food-centric holiday of the year, is certainly no different. Every family has their own special traditions on Thanksgiving, whether you have a big turkey dinner or a small non-bird focused meal, it’s always about food.

When food becomes difficult to afford, these holidays become less exciting and more anxiety-inducing. We believe that no family should have to stress about food during the holiday season, so we’re doing a very special Thanksgiving Grocery Delivery for our clients complete with a turkey!

Thanks to The Embassy of the State of Qatar to the United States and other donors who will help provide Thanksgiving meals for 1,100 families in our northeast and east Houston service area. We are incredibly grateful for the continuous generosity. You too can get involved in providing hope to families in need!

Join us in Giving Hope

We are so excited to be doing this for the second year in a row, but we can’t do it without your help! We need 150 volunteer drivers to help us deliver food on Saturday, November 20^th. This is a fun way to give back this holiday season alongside friends, family, and colleagues. All deliveries will be contactless to ensure everyone’s safety. Volunteers will commit to delivering food along a set route to about 4-5 families. It’s a simple moment that will make a huge difference to the families we serve.

Wondering what the day will look like? Here’s a brief outline of what you’ll do:

Volunteers ready to make their deliveries!

1. Sign-up and commit to volunteering at a scheduled time.
2. On Saturday, come to our warehouse (1260 Shotwell St) to pick up your assigned delivery route and food at your scheduled time between 9-11 am.
3. Deliver food to your assigned families.
4. Smile, because you just made someone’s Thanksgiving extra special!

It’s that simple! If you’re interested in volunteering, you can sign-up here! If you would like more information, please reach out to our Volunteer Manager, Sean Nickelberry at 281-913-9423 or volunteer@targethunger.org

We also couldn’t do it without the support of donors like you. Every dollar goes a very long way, especially during the holiday season. If you can’t volunteer with us, get involved by donating to help a family in need this holiday season! We are so appreciative of incredible donors like you!

Welcome to Kashmere Gardens

Sitting just above our original service zip code, 77020, lies this week’s focus: 77026. Nestled in the northern 610 Loop between an industrial area and a rail corridor, the zip code is split between the Greater Fifth Ward neighborhood and Kashmere Gardens neighborhood.

A map of the zip codes we serve and the client populations in those areas.

Driving through Kashmere Gardens, one will quickly notice the large lot sizes with single-family homes. Houston Gardens, completed in 1937, was part of the Suburban Resettlement Administration program created during the New Deal. The point of the program was to relocate struggling urban and rural families to new subsistence communities planned by the federal government. Established to be self-sufficient communities, the large plot sizes encouraged small-scale farms for community growth, as well as community centers and schools.

Like Greater Fifth Ward, Kashmere Gardens has a history of social activism – namely in leading the fight for school integration in Houston. Tyrone Day was the first Black student to enroll at an all-white elementary school in Houston. He enrolled at Kashmere Gardens Elementary in 1960, one of 12 students accepted into H.I.S.D. to begin school integration. Students at Kashmere High School were also involved in integration efforts, boycotting the ongoing segregation in Houston’s schools in 1965, more than 10 years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. H.I.S.D. desegregated in 1984.

Frenchtown in Houston

Greater Fifth Ward’s Frenchtown takes up the southern section of 77026. Frenchtown, briefly mentioned in our history of 77020, is a four-square block community. Established in 1922, it primarily consisted of Creoles of French, Spanish, and African descent from Louisiana, lending it the name it still carries. Houston was finding great success at this time, and many workers were attracted to the city, leading to the settling of Frenchtown. Workers were interested in the Southern Pacific Railroad, oil industries, and opportunities along Houston’s Ship Channel. Additional immigration waves occurred following the Mississippi River Flood of 1927 and Houston’s growth during World War II.

The Area Today

Volunteers working at our Willie H. & Gladys R. Goffney Community Garden in Kashmere Gardens.

As with 77020, the area saw great change following World War II and desegregation. Middle-class residents seeking opportunities elsewhere began moving to the suburbs. The area currently has 23,249 residents, nearly 50% of which are black or African American. The area has seen a surge in its Hispanic residents, increasing from 19% in 1990 to 31% in 2000, and now 48%. 1,561 families, out of the community’s 5,266, live below the poverty line. The median household income is $31,184, half of Harris County’s median of $63,699. Kashmere Gardens experienced great damage during Harvey, seeing some of the first flooding in the city and the eventual official closing of their library from damage.

The area has a special place for Target Hunger because it is home to our Willie H. & Gladys R. Goffney Community Garden that has been tended to since our founding in 1989. We are grateful to have a spot in the community that not only provides fresh produce for the people we serve, but also provides a beautiful green space.It is beloved by community members, volunteers, and staff alike. We encourage you to visit the garden by volunteering one day, and while you’re there, tour the Kashmere Gardens neighborhood.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmere_Gardens,_Houston

https://www.houstoncc.org/our_communities/kashmere_gardens/index.php

https://issuu.com/skrogers/docs/ccdi5-kashmeretrinity_briefing_book?fbclid=IwAR0TPhRmZZm2Y1WhQT3Z6Lwx0tXz3xnUOOkI-3RdXScexrVcKeR3wZD7CMU

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resettlement_Administration

https://www.facebook.com/commissionerrodneyellis/posts/change-takes-courage-and-time-on-this-day-in-1960-change-agent-tyrone-raymond-da/10156247369132032/

http://www.houstonstateofhealth.com/?module=demographicdata&controller=index&action=index&id=38501&sectionId=

Big Changes at Home

Volunteers working in our Shotwell Garden.

Target Hunger has been at our Shotwell location for about two and half years. Prior to our current warehouse, the organization operated out of an old school building. When Harvey hit, the building was damaged and no longer suitable to workfrom, and so we relocated operations to our current facility. Since moving in to 1260 Shotwell Street we have made several improvements, some of which have happened very recently!

We shared earlier in the year about the official opening of our Shotwell Garden – an above ground container garden that features 2,400 crates for planting, a 3,000 gallon rainwater catchment system, and a 72 square foot green house. We are happy to say that this garden is flourishing from the heat of summer with fresh produce leaving the garden and going directly into the homes of families who need it.

Creating Opportunity in the Warehouse

 Recently, our warehouse has seen a few changes as well due to a $426,000 grant from the Qatar Harvey Fund We are grateful for the installation of a new generator, which we hope will allow us to serve the community better, particularly in times of disaster. Most exciting of all is the establishment of a new Repack Room! Built into the inside of our warehouse, the new space has allowed for some significant changes. Now that we have the ability to repackage larger quantities of food, we can secure grains and dried foods in bulk, and can serve more families with healthy, nutritious staples. Large bags of rice and beans can now be repackaged into family size portions for our pantry boxes. We can even create portioned recipes for families!

The addition of the Repack Room means more volunteer opportunities as well! We encourage volunteers to visit the warehouse and help us repackage the food that will go to families. You can sign-up to volunteer at our warehouse or in the garden here. It’s a great way to get involved and see the changes at our Shotwell facility! We are excited to continue growing in this centrally located facility for our service area and see it come to life as the home base for all our work. We hope to see you there soon!