Fact Sheets

Hunger Link

MISSION:
The North Texas Food Bank passionately pursues a hunger-free community.

NEEDS:
It is a simple and disturbing fact that Texas has more hungry families than all but one of the 50 states. One in five children in Texas live in poverty. Forty-six percent of households with hungry children are considered the “working poor” with at least one adult having a job, but not earning enough to pay rent and buy food. Individuals who benefit from food stamps in Texas receive an average of $81.61 a month, per person. (Data sources: America’s Second Harvest and the Center for Public Policy Priorities.) More specifically, in the Food Bank’s 13-county service area, approximately 377,600 (13%) percent of the population lives below the poverty line. And, more than 164,000 (43%) percent of those living in poverty are children under age 18.

SERVICE:
The Food Bank procures donated surplus food and transfers it in usable quantities to over 400 nonprofit Member Agencies that serve Dallas, Denton, Collin, Fannin, Rockwall, Hunt, Grayson, Kaufman, Ellis, Navarro, Lamar, Delta and Hopkins counties.

Hunger Link: Since 1986, the Dallas Hunger Link has been collecting surplus prepared perishable food from 50 donor cafeterias, restaurants, hotels and other food service kitchens. The Food Bank provides disposable aluminum steam table pans for freezing the prepared foods so that specially trained Hunger Link drivers can take the food in refrigerated trucks to on-site meal programs throughout Dallas. In most situations, Dallas Hunger Link rescues food from both regular pick-up sites and one-time donors on less than a day’s notice. And, non-frozen food that is donated to Hunger Link is consumed within 36 hours. Many Member Agencies depend on Hunger Link to meet their demand for food.

Impact: In 2005, Hunger Link collected, delivered or transferred more than 743,000 pounds of food to 22 Member Agencies in Dallas and surrounding areas

Since founded in 1982, the NTFB has distributed 293 million pounds of food.

1. 32 million pounds of food were distributed in FY05, an increase of 14%.

2. Agency pantries distributed food to more than 48,000 families per month, an increase of 45% over the past four years.

3. Agency on-site meal programs served over 465,000 meals/snacks per month.

4. Largest food bank in Texas based on distributed pounds, and 9th in the A2H network. (19 Texas A2H food banks/rescue organizations; over 200 food banks in A2H network)

5. Consistently ranked in the Top 10 nonprofit organizations in the Dallas/Fort Worth area (as listed in the Dallas Business Journal).

EFFECTIVENESS: Each $1 donated = five meals ($10 worth of food).

$ .97 out of each $1 helps feed hungry North Texas families.