Serious question: who do they feed? What's different from someone on the lone star card vs getting food here? Qualifications?

I run a food distribution service out of the Lincoln House of Hope once a month. Our funding comes from the A&M C of C. I know that First Baptist in CS does the same thing except weekly. There are other organizations that also do this throughout town.

Just about all of the food our organizations purchase comes from the food bank, and it helps to feed families that are lower income, fell on hard times, etc. There are income requirements for the families coming to collect food and forms that need to be filled out. It's a matrix of annual household income combined with the number of family members. I haven't found a chart I can post on here, but here is a quick explanation.

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For a client to receive USDA food, they must fall within 185% of the Federal Poverty Level. Each July, USDA releases what qualifies as 185% of the Federal Poverty Level. For example, the Federal Poverty Level is currently $11,670 for one individual and $23,850 for a family of four. USDA allows their food to be given to individuals and families that are 185% of the poverty level. Therefore 185% of $11,670 is $21,590 and 185% of $23,850 is $44,123. USDA has provided an easy to read chart that will help you determine if your clients fall within the USDA income eligibility.

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The general demographic for our location is roughly 50-60% retired folks. Sometimes it's grandparents that are raising the grandkids and need a little extra help. Others are younger families that the head of household has lost their job and need help providing for their family. We get a few grad students that are having a hard time making ends meet with school and families.

So can people have state assistance and food bank assistance together? Or are they mutually exclusive?

Yes, they are allowed to have both forms of assistance, they do not have to have 1 to get the other. When we certify the people coming through there is a spot on the form where it simply asks if they are receiving any type of assistance, SNAP, medicaid, food stamps. That is only for our record keeping purposes and the FB has to turn it in to the USDA.

farmersfight,

Do y'all accept, or do you you know the best place around here to donate processed game (venison and even hog if they will accept it)?

We used to handle the distribution through our church as they really knew the people who were in need, but we don't really have a home church anymore and I still wanna donate some of it.

It will all be ground and frozen in approximately 1lb bags.

Contact The Bridge Ministries to see if they can accept it. They pass out food once per week.

The Brazos Valley Food Bank distributes food to 33 partner agencies (church-based food pantries, children's recreation site, homeless shelters, residential substance abuse treatment centers, etc.) in Brazos, Burleson, Grimes, Madison, Robertson and Washington Counties who in turn feed the hungry through their programs in their communities. One of those partners is Lincoln House of Hope, with farmersfight alluded to. In addition, the Brazos Valley Food Bank oversees Special Programs, like our BackPack Program for children (food filled bags sent home with children on Fridays for weekend nutrition), Senior Bags (bags of food to supplement Meals on Wheels, that operates M-F only), School-Based Food Pantries (food pantries on middle, high school and college campuses) and mobile food pantries (food driven out to under-served, rural communities - for us that includes Madisonville), to help fill the gaps of unmet needs by existing resources.

Collectively, this network distributes over 6 million lbs of food (or 5.4 million meals) to over 54,000 unique individuals annually. Those individuals breakout like the following: 42% are children, 11% are seniors and 47% are adults. Of those who are not children, 37% worked for pay in the last 4 weeks. Sixteen percent (16%) are veterans (all of this data is from the recent Hunger in America survey, of which the Brazos Valley Food Bank participated in). We estimate that around 30% of those who visit one of these programs also receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, aka Food Stamp) funds. Many more qualify but do not apply primarily because of the stigma. On average, those who visit food pantries in our area utilize these services once every two months. The food they receive usually last 3-4 days.

The food that the Brazos Valley Food Bank distributes comes from the following sources: USDA (25%); Donated (52%); Purchased (12%); Cosmetically Damaged Product (Reclamation -11%). The USDA has income guidelines that cannot be exceeded in order to qualify for food. For assistance through food bank partners and programs, a household of 1 cannot make more than $21,775, which is around $10.50/hr. A household of 8 cannot make more than $75,647, which is $1,455 weekly.

I would encourage anyone who has additional questions about the Brazos Valley Food Bank to contact us directly at (979) 779-3663.

Theresa Mangapora, Executive Director