Summer Hunger Food Drive: Food pantries feed communities with the help of the Brazos Valley Food Bank

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - There are 19 food pantries that work with the Brazos Valley Food Bank. Donations are crucial from the community in order to feed the families that depend on them.

At the Brazos Church Pantry volunteers are there six days a week handing out food to those who need it. The food bank has been seeing fewer donations during the summer months. The pantry feeds about 250 families every week and that number is expected to increase during the summer months.

“We’re able to place an order with the food bank and let them know what kind of food they need. But when I go to order every week it’s just less and less availability,” says Brazos Church Pantry Food Coordinator Karin Doerr.

Even with donations at their lowest, the Brazos Valley Food Bank has still made it possible for organizations like the Salvation Army to receive the food they need.

“I know on their part it really is a stretch for the food bank, especially with inflation with food cost going up with gas cost going up,” says Salvation Army commanding officer Andrea Israel.

The impact that donations have not only affect the food bank but the entire Brazos Valley. Pantries are hopeful that the community will step up and give.

“This is an amazingly generous community covid definitely showed us that. I think that when people understand the need people do step up,” says Doerr

Along with partnering with food pantries, the Brazos Valley Food Bank works with emergency shelters, soup kitchens, and programs for the youth, the disabled, and senior citizens. The food bank provides more than six million pounds of food to the Brazos Valley every year.

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