El Paso Times- Ruben Sanchez: Food bank battles specter of hunger

By Ruben Sanchez \ Guest columnist
Posted: 10/02/2011 12:00:00 AM MDT

More than two in three children in El Paso County's four largest school districts go to school hungry each day.

According to 2009 data reported by school districts to the Texas Education Agency, the most recent available, there are 102,546 economically disadvantaged children among the nearly 144,000 students enrolled in the El Paso, Ysleta, Socorro and Clint independent school districts combined.

Of course, both of those figures are much higher in 2011.

If that isn't shocking enough, U.S. Census data tell us there are more than 229,000 total individuals suffering from food insecurity in El Paso County. That means nearly a third of our county's population has no food, or very limited food, on any given day.

When children and adults do not have the proper access to food on a consistent basis, they suffer from food insecurity, which in turn, affects their health and ability to learn or work.

And the outlook is pretty grim. According to a Brookings Institution analysis of Census data released Sept. 22, a record 15.4 million suburban residents of the United States lived below the poverty line last year. That's up 11.5 percent from the year before.

Unfortunately, El Paso now tops the list of the highest suburban poverty rates in the country at 36.4 percent of the population.

The West Texas Food Bank of El Paso, El Pasoans Fighting Hunger, is desperately trying to meet the growing needs of the hungry.

As the only Feeding America and Texas Food Bank
Network-affiliated food bank in our community, West Texas Food Bank supplies 122 partner pantries, soup kitchens, crisis and homeless shelters within the county. In just one year, food distribution has grown from 900,000 pounds to more than 4,687,000 pounds so far in 2011.

Still, we fall short of the current need. Food prices are unpredictable, freight costs are soaring, and the cost of distribution is pushing us to our limits.

As the economy continues to weaken, jobs evaporate and incomes are reduced, demands on our resources will skyrocket.

The next three months are a critical period in the lives of food banks, and we remind the El Paso community that food drives are important to our survival, but dollars are essential to our ability to respond to the need.

Most of us take our meals for granted. In El Paso, it is possible that your next-door neighbor is one of those who cannot.

The Census data show that many of the newly impoverished are the former middle class who have lost their jobs. Many of them may have contributed to food banks in the past and now find themselves using them.

As we move into the holiday season, remember the thousands who go to bed hungry each night.

Consider sponsoring a food drive, collecting financial contributions, volunteering to sort and deliver food or simply writing a check and dropping it into the mail.

It is our mission as the West Texas Food Bank, with El Pasoans Fighting Hunger, to serve the forgotten of our community.

We humbly ask you to join us. Call 595-1060 or see www.wtxfoodbank.org to see how you can help -- today.

Ruben Sanchez is deputy director, West Texas Food Bank/executive director, El Pasoans Fighting Hunger.