CBS 7- Midland/Odessa "No Meat for Food Bank Clients"
CBS 7- Midland/Odessa "No Meat for Food Bank Clients" August 11, 2011
Shelley Childers
schilders@cbs7.com
CBS 7 News
August 11, 2011
Alpine, TX – The West Texas Food Bank may have trouble meeting the food needs for residents in West Texas this month.
According to Paige Phelps, the Director of Marketing and Community Relations for the food bank, the they do not have meat to hand out to clients right now, in fact they are down 21,000 pounds of meat from this time last year.
"We’re just not going to be able to feed as many people, it's a matter of do you feed a kid, or do you not?” Phelps said.
They credit a massive food shortage to the drought and flooding across the U.S. that has caused a sourcing and transportation backlog. That combined with high food prices has literally left the food bank with little to hand out.
“There’s a crisis that happened almost overnight,” said West Texas Food Bank Board President Wade Kuehler.
Presidio County in West Texas has the second highest rate of food insecurity in the state with almost 30 percent of the county’s residents considered food insecure.
The West Texas Food Bank serves 60,000 people each month, 45 percent of their clients are children.
Now the organization is pounding the pavement, desperate for help from agencies and private residents.
To help the West Texas Food Bank with donations you can visit their website by clicking here.
