Gregg Popovich, SA Food Bank team up to help feed children this summer

SAN ANTONIO – Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich teamed up with the San Antonio Food Bank on Wednesday to address the urgent need for donations this summer to help feed students in the area. 

Popovich and Eric Cooper, the president and CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank, discussed the food bank’s efforts to get enough food and funds equal to nine million extra meals this summer.

Popovich and Cooper spoke at KIPP Academy in the 200 block of Stark Street, and shared details about H-E-B’s program for customer donations at the register called Help End Hunger, plus other ways the community can help.

“For every $1 we take in, we can put out seven meals so you just have to do the math," Cooper said. "You don’t have to limit it to that, you can make a big difference.”

Cooper said the summer is the highest time of need for the San Antonio Food Bank. More than 200,000 local kids receive free or reduced meals at school, but do not have the resources during the weekends or holidays.

Popovich and Cooper said there are several ways to help besides a monetary donation. The Food Bank has four kitchens, a warehouse and farm that produces locally grown meals.

“The more we get the word out, the better, and there are other ways. You can donate your time, you can be involved in packing these meals, in helping distribute the meals. You can donate goods,” Popovich said.

“You can tell everybody, even tell people you don’t like," Popovich said. "Tell them to give food and their money and walk away from them, leave them alone, It doesn’t matter, we just want to get it done for the kids so hopefully we can spread the word and getting everyone involved.”

The food bank has already doubled the sites to feed school-aged kids, and in the first week served twice as many meals as at this time last year.

Cooper said some of the items in demand are peanut butter, rice and beans, and other types of canned protein.

“Kids love peanut butter. It is a great shelf stable protein, a lot of households there might be an older sibling that’s preparing a meal for a younger sibling and they don’t have to turn on an oven or a stove to cook, but core staple items that kids love always go a long way in those boxes," Cooper said.

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The food bank feeds 58,000 people weekly with a third of those being children under the age of 18.  

“I think that any of us realize that the measure of who we are and the satisfaction we get out of life is directionally proportional to what we give back, no matter how little or how much you have monetarily or superficially, materially, if it’s all about you, then you are in big trouble,” Popovich said.

The San Antonio Food Bank is a non-profit organization. Click here for more information.

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