possible cuts<\/a> to nutrition programs still being debated, the food bank has a team focused on making sure lawmakers understand how policy decisions affect people in San Antonio and across the state.<\/p>\nMario Obledo Jr., the San Antonio Food Bank\u2019s chief of government and public affairs, said many people are surprised to learn his position exists.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality of it is, our sister food banks have positions similar to this as well \u2014 not only in the state but across the country,\u201d Obledo said.<\/p>\n
Obledo, who worked in state and local government for more than two decades, has been with the food bank collectively for 14 years.<\/p>\n
Obledo said government relations teams work with groups such as Feeding Texas and Feeding America. Their focus is federal, state and local policy affecting the people food banks serve.<\/p>\n
The teams meet with elected officials as well as people in appointed offices like the Texas Department of Agriculture or the Health and Human Services Commission.<\/p>\n
\u201cRepublican and Democrat, all coming together to help us, but that education and advocacy is critical because if we don\u2019t keep that up then that information goes away,\u201d Obledo said. \u201cIt\u2019s not in front of them.\u201d <\/p>\n
He emphasized that their work is advocacy, not lobbying.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not paid lobbyists. We\u2019re not registered lobbyists. We are advocates,\u201d Obledo said. \u201cWe\u2019re creating awareness and information that we can disseminate to lawmakers and staff so they can make an educated decision when it comes to voting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Obledo said the work has become more difficult as funding for food programs faces uncertainty.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to sugarcoat anything. It\u2019s been tough,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we have to remember the mission because people are counting on us. People\u2019s livelihoods count on us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Obledo and teammate Stanley Sorrell travel across Texas and make several trips each year to Washington, D.C., to share the food bank\u2019s priorities with lawmakers and staff.<\/p>\n
Their work also includes connecting with rural counties, chambers of commerce and government relations teams in other sectors, including VIA Metropolitan Transit, SAWS, CPS Energy, Methodist Healthcare Ministries, University Health and UT San Antonio.<\/p>\n
Obledo said those organizations often serve the same people.<\/p>\n
\u201cEducation, health care, transportation, food, all those issues are tethered,\u201d Obledo said. \u201cSo it\u2019s important for us to maximize our strength and to help those clients and those folks out in the community that we\u2019re all serving at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
A major priority is the federal Farm Bill, which includes measures supporting SNAP and other nutrition programs. <\/p>\n
Obledo said Congress will have an opportunity to work on the bill when lawmakers return to Washington. The current Farm Bill expires at the end of September.<\/p>\n
If nutrition provisions do not pass, Obledo said it could affect food bank inventory and many people who depend on assistance.<\/p>\n
The food bank is also preparing for the Texas legislative session, which begins in January in Austin.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working with our colleagues across the state and also at Feeding Texas to develop a policy priority package that makes sense for the food banks and that will hopefully make gains for the clients that we serve,\u201d Obledo said.<\/p>\n
For a full list of items the Food Bank advocacy team is focusing on, head to the organization\u2019s advocacy webpage<\/a>. <\/p>\nCopyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 As more families turn to food assistance, the San Antonio Food Bank is working beyond…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2671,6246,82,8332,84,83],"class_list":["post-422421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-congress","tag-food-insecurity","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-food-bank","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422421","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=422421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}