NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas – In a sign of how quickly New Braunfels is growing, the San Antonio Food Bank will start turning dirt on Wednesday for a new food bank in the Hill Country Town.
Grocer giant H-E-B will also present a check for $100,000 to help with construction.
This will be the San Antonio Food Bank’s first satellite campus.
According to the SAFB website:
The average rate of poverty for the SAFB’s sixteen- county area is 20.5 percent. Source: U.S. Census—2009 Small Area Income & Poverty Estimates
In Bexar County, one out of five individuals is potentially eligible to receive Food Stamp assistance, yet only about half actually participate in the program. Source: U.S. Census—2008 Small Area Income & Poverty Estimates, Texas Health & Human Services Commission
Texas is the second most food insecure state in the nation. Defined, food insecurity is when you are so limited in resources to buy food that you are running out of food, reducing the quality of food that your family eats, feeding your children unbalanced diets, or skipping meals so your children can eat. 17.1 percent of Texas’ population is food insecure. Source: U.S. Census—2009 Small Area Income & Poverty Estimates
5.7 percent of Texas’ population experience hunger on a regular basis – more than one million people. Source: USDA/Economic Research Service
The rate of children living in poverty in Texas is 24.3 percent; the national rate is 20.0 percent. In Bexar County, that rate is 25.1 percent – that means that one in four children most likely struggle with food insecurity. Source: USDA/Economic Research Service, U.S. Census—2009 Small Area Income & Poverty Estimates
In Southwest Texas, 14 percent of client households receiving emergency food assistance are seniors, higher than the state average of nine percent. Source: The Texas Food Bank Network, Hunger in America 2010: San Antonio and Southwest Texas
Almost half of clients’ households seeking emergency food assistance are forced to make choices between food and other basic necessities. Forty-eight percent report having to choose between paying for utilities or heating fuel and food; 47 percent had to choose between paying for rent or a mortgage and food; 39 percent report having to choose between paying for gas for a car or food. Source: Hunger in America 2010: San Antonio and Southwest Texas
Each week, approximately 58,000 people receive emergency food assistance from an agency in the San Antonio Food Bank network.
Local leaders from the city, food bank and H-E-B will be in attendance.
Copyright 2016 by KSAT - All rights reserved.
