Tabatha Parker sat on the front porch of her Arlington home on Halloween, as she’s done for the last two decades, handing out candy as well as boxes of oatmeal to neighbors who voiced need.
“Are you OK? Do you have enough food, with the SNAP benefits thing and all that?” Parker asked.
Parker, 52, worried that her neighbors were without food during fall’s government shutdown that froze Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for millions of Americans. Tarrant County has the fourth highest SNAP-eligible population in Texas. As demand at established food pantries surged, residents like Parker helped fill the gaps.
She kept an office-style cabinet outside her home stocked with peanut butter, cereal, rice, beans and ramen.
All free to anyone who needed it. No questions asked.
Now her effort, which she calls Brittania Gardens food pantry, continues. Even after SNAP benefits were reinstated, Parker said she saw local food assistance organizations such as Mission Arlington overwhelmed with demand. Many in need had to reapply for benefits, and some lost them entirely due to altered work requirements.
“Here, it’s more localized. No questions asked,” she said. “Just go and get it. I think it’s probably easier for people, especially if they don’t drive or don’t have a car.”
Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed last year, funding for SNAP is reduced by $186 billion through 2034.
Tarrant County’s population of SNAP eligible individuals dropped by 20,408, while active cases dropped by 8,352 from September to January, according to data from Texas Health and Human Services.
Parker’s pantry grew out of grief as much as necessity, she said.
Her husband, Joseph, died in a workplace accident in 2024. He was a longtime volunteer with the Arlington Fire Department. Parker continued donating to the department in his memory. The oatmeal she kept stocked for them was the first thing she had on hand to give out on the Halloween following her husband’s death. She gave two boxes to a neighbor with seven children.
“Nobody in America should be going hungry,” Parker said. “I don’t care if you’re a citizen or not. You should be able to feed your family regardless.”
Parker spends about $40 to $50 a month on the pantry, stretching her budget through deals she scouts at local grocery stores. She posts weekly to Facebook, TikTok and Nextdoor where she receives donations for the pantry as well.
A pickup truck bed filled with donations from a Grand Prairie homeowners association once kept the food pantry stocked for months.
“It took me five trips to get all of that food into the house,” Parker said.
The pantry serves a neighborhood Parker describes as largely Hispanic. Some visitors don’t speak English. Parker said the only word they need to understand is “free.”
“I want people to know that there is still some compassion in the world for people who are hurting and need food,” Parker said.
Parker is not alone. A few miles away on Marshalldale Drive, Katie Connell has operated her own front-porch pantry for just over a year.
Katie Connell sits beside her front-porch pantry at 1515 Marshalldale Drive in Arlington on Feb. 26, 2026. (Nicole Williams Quezada | Fort Worth Report)
“It really amped up around the time they were cutting food stamps,” Connell said.
Connell, who has lived in Arlington for 14 years, started the pantry after watching grocery costs climb while feeling fortunate that her own household, with children grown and two incomes, could absorb the pressure.
“If you’re a stay-at-home mom and you’ve got kids and everything’s more expensive, or if you’re a single mom, or you’re just a family trying to make it, things are hard,” she said.
The social media platform Nextdoor transformed Connell’s reach. She now gets traffic that’s roughly equal parts people in need and people making donations, including a woman who offered up a piece of furniture for the pantry.
At Connell’s pantry, donated goods such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, soap, feminine hygiene products and cleaning supplies are often the first to go.
Canned soups, vegetables and other nonperishable items line the shelves of Katie Connell’s front-porch pantry at 1515 Marshalldale Drive in Arlington on Feb. 26, 2026. (Nicole Williams Quezada | Fort Worth Report)
“Normal stuff we take for granted,” Connell said, noting this is a needs gap that traditional food pantries and SNAP benefits often do not fill. “With benefits being cut, the money that you were going to spend for that has to go toward your food and your other stuff.”
People have described how an injury, slow week of hourly work or a utility bill that came in higher than expected sets them back, Connell said.
“It’s people that just need stuff to get by for the next payday,” she said.
She keeps a deliberate distance, staying inside so visitors don’t feel watched, acknowledging how difficult it may be for some to take the step to seek assistance.
A pantry stocked with canned goods, dry food and hygiene products sits on the front porch of Katie Connell’s home at 1515 Marshalldale Drive in Arlington on Feb. 26, 2026. (Nicole Williams Quezada | Fort Worth Report)
For Parker, this work is an extension of values her parents instilled. Her father volunteered at Mission Arlington for years when she was growing up.
“You don’t have to be rich to be generous,” she said.
Nicole Williams Quezada is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at nicole.williams@fortworthreport.org.
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