Hometown Glory
Houston Food Bank named tops in the nation for efforts to feed city's hungry
One local organization has garnered some much-deserved national attention for its continual efforts to end hunger for thousands of Houston residents.
The Houston Food Bank has been named the 2015-2016 Food Bank of the Year by Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks. The award is given to the year's most outstanding food bank out of the more than 200 food banks across the nation that are included in the Feeding America network.
"As a proud member of the Feeding America network, the Houston Food Bank routinely turns to its network peers for inspiration and as it strives to live its mission: Leading the fight against hunger," said Danny Flores, spokesman for H-E-B, who presented the award at Feeding America's National Executive Directors' Forum in Scottsdale, Arizona. "The food bank has strong alignment with Feeding America network values and actively incorporates great ideas from other food banks in the network. They also actively share their innovations with the network and other partners."
Feeding America cited many factors as to why the Houston Food Bank was selected as the year's award recipient, including the organization's "commitment to community engagement, increasing the number of nutritious meals distributed to clients, and continuous improvement to operational efficiency."
The Houston Food Bank feeds 800,000 people each year by distributing food to nearly 600 hunger relief organizations in 18 southeast Texas counties, and the organization's Backpack Buddy program provides weekend food sacks to more than 10,000 children in 500 schools. Additionally, the Houston Food Bank's retail pick up program, which collects food donations from more than 260 stores, has seen double-digit increases in the average monthly pounds received over the past two fiscal years.
