The RGV Food Bank Needs Help

Note: This isn’t a straight, objective news story, but at least we admit it.

On with the opinion piece, disguised as news, which it really is with a slant toward the hungry.

Houston, we have a problem. Anyone with deep pockets, the Food Bank of the RGV needs some help, thanks to recent cuts of some serious federal financial resources.

When the food bank ran short of funds (food) in 2013, it was servicing approximately 38,000 people per week.

Now?

Double that — approximately 88,000 per week — spread out across the RGV’s four counties.

In only a span of 12 years, double the number of food-needy people. With dwindling fed dollars to support it and others like it.

Gut the Programs

Recently, the USDA (Dept. of Ag) ended two pandemic- era programs, Local Food for Schools and Local Food Purchase Assistance, cutting (gutting) over $1 billion in funding for schools and food banks to buy food from local farms, impacting food security and local farmers.

The cuts amounted to more than $1 billion, including $660 million for schools and $500 million for food banks, and they allowed schools and food banks to purchase food directly from local farmers and ranchers, supporting local economies, and providing fresh, healthy options.

Thanks to current cuts in fed monies, food banks like the RGV will have less food to distribute, which will also have an impact on the small, local farmers who participated in these programs, who will also face economic hardship, as they lose a key source of income and market access.

Hopefully, the cuts will be met with some other financial avenue to pursue, because if the burden falls on only local entities, local taxes will be called on to fill the hungry void.

Maybe the state will help out since it must now have more money in its DPS budget, thanks to all the illegal border crossings that have vanished into thin air.

The USDA, in a nod to Orwellian speech, stated that the cuts were a “return to long-term, fiscally responsible initiatives.”

Even as we increase our armaments in the Middle East aimed at Iran.

Meanwhile, another $20 billion just went out the door to at least two foreign countries (just a guess).

These federal cuts also halt scheduled deliveries of food through the USDA's Emergency Food Assistance Program, further impacting food banks.

If you have a big heart, money, feel like helping the down and out, you can reach out to the Food Bank RGV through multiple means: You can make monetary donations online at foodbankrgv.com.

Also, food donations may be dropped off at the Food Bank RGV, which is located at 724 N. Cage Blvd. in Pharr.

More info about the ways in which the food bank may be helped can be found by visiting foodbankrgv.com, or calling (956) 682-8101.