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<\/p>\nThe 64,000 square foot facility includes an on-site market, helps with benefits enrollment and has workforce training programs.<\/p>\n
WACO, Texas \u2014 The Central Texas Food Bank has officially opened a new facility in Waco, marking a new chapter in the fight against hunger in the region’s northern counties.<\/p>\n
For years, the organization operated primarily from its Austin headquarters. That changed with the opening of the new Waco location, which brings food distribution, workforce training and community resources directly into the area it serves.<\/p>\n
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“We’ve been a partner from a distance down in Austin. Today, that changes,” said Mark Jackson, chief development officer for the Central Texas Food Bank.<\/p>\n
Former board chair Alice Starr said the new facility positions the food bank to work more directly with local partners, including Caritas of Waco, since the Waco site sits much closer to northern county communities than the Austin facility does.<\/p>\n
\nFilling a Longstanding Gap <\/p>\n
Central Texas Food Bank President and CEO Sari Vatske said the expansion addresses a service gap that has existed for years. According to Vatske, Waco was the only metropolitan area in Texas without a food bank within 100 miles before the new facility opened.<\/p>\n
Vatske said the northern counties served by the Waco location have historically faced higher rates of food insecurity than the food bank’s 12 southern counties.<\/p>\n
Demand for services became clear almost immediately. Vatske said the facility saw about 54 individuals on its first afternoon of operation, followed by roughly 70 the next day.<\/p>\n
“It is proof positive that we made the right decision to open in this location because the need is very real in this community,” Vatske said.<\/p>\n
\nNew Services and Capacity <\/p>\n
The Waco facility includes a commercial production kitchen capable of producing up to 10,000 meals per day, along with an on-site market, help with benefits enrollment, emergency services and volunteer spaces.<\/p>\n
Former board chair Kathleen Farlow said the food bank as a whole is approaching 70 million meals distributed annually across Central Texas.<\/p>\n
“To look at a physical something that you created that will help the citizens of your community, the neighbors in your community, in the future is a fabulous experience,” Farlow said.<\/p>\n
Beyond food distribution, the new facility houses a workforce training program designed to teach participants culinary and warehouse skills, with the goal of helping them find jobs and reduce long-term reliance on food assistance.<\/p>\n
“This facility is not only designed to provide additional access to nutritious food, but it’s designed to help break the cycle of hunger and poverty,” Vatske said. “We have workforce training programs [that] will help people learn culinary skills, warehouse training skills, so that we can then place them in jobs to help reduce the need for the food bank.”<\/p>\n
Danny Flores, with H-E-B Hunger Relief, said no one should have to worry about their next meal.<\/p>\n
“There’s no reason for anybody to wonder where their next meal is coming from,” Flores said. “Not here in the state of Texas, nowhere in this world.”<\/p>\n
Waco Mayor Jim Holmes recognized the milestone by declaring a Central Texas Food Bank Day in the city.<\/p>\n
\nMerger with Shepherd’s Heart <\/p>\n
The new facility also represents the culmination of a merger with Shepherd’s Heart, a local organization that had served the Waco area for years. Bob Gager, former CEO of Shepherd’s Heart and now part of the Central Texas Food Bank’s development team, said the merger reflects the scale of the combined operation.<\/p>\n
“At Shepherd’s Heart, we’ve served over 500,000 families, so it wasn’t small,” Gager said. “This is a big deal that we had to merge in here.”<\/p>\n
Gager said the new facility gives the organization far greater capacity than Shepherd’s Heart had on its own.<\/p>\n
“There’s so many things that we can do here that we didn’t have the capacity to do at Shepherd’s Heart,” he said.<\/p>\n
\nLooking Ahead <\/p>\n
Organizers say the facility’s impact will be felt in everyday ways across Central Texas.<\/p>\n
“Tomorrow, it means a child will have enough food to get through the school day,” Vatske said. “Tomorrow, it means someone can fix their flat tire and buy groceries. Tomorrow it means a grandparent can eat and buy their medicine.”<\/p>\n
The Central Texas Food Bank says it is still seeking donors and volunteers, and is hiring locally for 40 positions at the new Waco location.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 64,000 square foot facility includes an on-site market, helps with benefits enrollment and has workforce training programs.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-417021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}