San Antonio Food Bank Replies Back to my Blog Posting

Flag this message
post on your blog
Thursday, February 19, 2009 8:39 AM
From:
"Villarreal, Zuani"
Add sender to Contacts
To:
ming_2575@yahoo.com

Hi Isabel,

I am writing to you because one of my co-workers came across your blog and saw the posting you had about “the sad truth about the Food Bank”.



When someone calls the Food Bank for help, they are connected with our referral coordinator. We have a team of 18 outreach workers that work from 8am to 8pm Monday thru Friday. That referral coordinator is going to connect the caller with all the different programs we have available – from Food Stamp application assistance, to nutrition education, and to a local pantry.



The San Antonio Food Bank works with more than 400 different non-profit agencies in our sixteen-county service area. These are church pantries, soup kitchens, community centers, and the like. These partner agencies are the conduit for our food distribution. Think of it this way – we are the HEB distribution center and our agencies are the HEB store in your neighborhood. If you go grocery shopping, are you going to go to the distribution center or wouldn’t it be more convenient if there was one right in your zip code? Through this network, we help 25,000 people every week with emergency food assistance.



As for the claim about the paperwork, I can only say that as a Food Bank agency, the only information we require the agency to have on record is the following:

• The total number of clients served per household

• The name and address of each client

• The number of persons in household

• The household income

• Whether the client or a household member receives government assistance

• The client’s signature



A verbal declaration of need or a crisis situation is acceptable; and the verbal declaration of need must include the applicant’s name, address, number of persons in the household, statement of income, and signature on the USDA application form.



We do not require our agencies to make copies of driver’s licenses and social security cards, etc., but if we are helping a client with an application for federal benefits such as Food Stamps or CHIP or WIC, that paperwork is required for the application and that requirement is set by the State or Federal government, not by the Food Bank or our partner agencies. But there is a distinction between getting food assistance from the Food Bank and our network and getting assistance from the federal government.



The statement that “a household can only receive food ONCE PER YEAR from the Food Bank food pantries” is completely false. There is no “one time Food Bank ticket for the year”. The Food Bank and our partner agencies as there to assist clients as needed, whether that is once a month, once a week, quarterly, etc.



With our partner agencies and our Food Stamp application assistance and other programs, we are helping families become self-sufficient.



Isabel, I want you and the whole community to know the truth about the San Antonio Food Bank. The real truth. If you would like to come by and visit, take a tour of our facility and see how we operate, I’d be happy to show you around.



Thank you for your consideration.



Zuani Villarreal

Director of Development



San Antonio Food Bank

5200 Old Highway 90 W

San Antonio, TX 78227



Direct/Fax: 210-431-8303

Office: 210-337-3663

zvillarreal@safoodbank.org



www.safoodbank.org



San Antonio Food Bank Named 2007-2008 Food Bank of the Year by Feeding America - The Nation's Food Bank Network