At Western Hills High School and the surrounding Las Vegas Trail neighborhood, food insecurity isn’t a new challenge.

“I always say, ‘Our kids didn’t start out full.’ So, in Las Vegas Trail, there’s been a lot of need for a long time,” said Paige Charbonnet, executive director of LVTRise, an organization dedicated to improving the area.

It’s why Patty Pressley helped start Cougar Corner, the food pantry at Western Hills High that also supplies hygiene products and clothing.

“The coaches told me that the kids were so thin and that they really couldn’t compete because they couldn’t sustain, they didn’t have enough energy,” Pressley said.

Now in its ninth school year, the pantry welcomes students three days a week, supplies meals for students in extracurriculars, and offers take-home bags for families.

It’s also expanded to include Leonard Middle School, Western Hills Elementary and Primary, Waverly Park and Luella Merrett Elementary.

Typically, Pressley said, they’d give out one or two food bags a month. In October, they gave out 15.

“Just in a day, like six more people have already started asking about food bags,” she said. It’s just starting to increase now, I mean… It’s just ramping up little by little. And, the same families and new families are needing that support.”

She and Charbonnet attribute the increase to uncertainty in SNAP benefits.

Las Vegas Trail has 7,709 SNAP recipients, according to an NBC 5 Investigates analysis of ZIP code data provided by Texas Health and Human Services.

Charbonnet said they’ve already seen the numbers reflected in their own food pantry at the LVTRise community center.

“We had 37 new families last week. We’ve served more than we’ve ever served in our weekly pantry; over 227 families, and this week we served an additional 30 new families on top of returning, as well,” she said.

Charbonnet said the community is stepping up–she’s getting donations that she’s bringing to Cougar Corner as they anticipate the need to continue increasing.

“It’s filling bellies and it’s changing lives,” she said. “We’re doing all that we can to help families and kids on campus, and then throughout Las Vegas Trail.”

If you’d like to contribute to Cougar Corner, you can find more information here.

Hungry? In need of food?

If you’re hungry and need nutritious, free food, you can call 2-1-1 for the latest information on the SNAP program and find alternative food resources from area food banks, food pantries and other community resources.

If you need food and live in Bosque, Cooke, Denton, Erath, Hamilton, Hill, Hood, Johnson, Palo Pinto, Parker, Somervell, Tarrant or Wise counties, search the Tarrant Area Food Bank website for food pantries.

If you need food and live in Collin, Dallas, Delta, Ellis, Fannin, Grayson, Hopkins, Hunt, Kaufman, Lamar, Navarro, or Rockwall counties, search the North Texas Food Bank website for food pantries.

If you need food and live elsewhere in Texas, visit the Feeding Texas website to find your local food bank and food pantries.

SNAP benefits nationwide and in Texas