FORT CAVAZOS, Texas — The Central Texas Food Bank and the Fort Cavazos Religious Support Office continued their strong partnership between The Great Place and its community by facilitating the third on-post drive-thru pantry event, “Fresh Foods for Families,” Aug. 1 at the Phantom Warrior Stadium parking lot.
“Food insecurities are a priority,” said Chaplain (Capt.) Eugene Savarimuthu, Garrison Chaplain’s Office chaplain resource manager. “We provide good food … we make sure none of the product is expired; we make sure our volunteers check on a regular basis.”
The partnership started June 6 with the first pilot event — feeding around 250 families, then over 400 on July 3 at the second iteration with fresh produce, meat and packaged goods.
Savarimuthu said his team planned to feed just over 500 families during the Aug. 1 event, as cars were lined up in two lanes across the approximately 500-yard-wide parking lot.
Fresh Food for Families is slated to become a recurring event, with the official grand opening Sept. 5.
Families drive into the parking lot, where volunteers guide drivers to the pickup line. There they will scan a QR code to check in and then fill out basic information such as ages in the household, income, number of household members, address, phone number and dietary preferences. The information is used to tailor prepacked boxes or bags of food. Next, items are loaded into the recipient’s trunk.
On average, families can receive more than a hundred dollars in groceries.
Mandy O’Connell, Central Texas Food Bank community distribution manager, spoke on the importance of bringing high-quality foods to families dealing with the heightened costs of groceries in the Fort Cavazos community.
“We’ve been trying to get on (Fort Cavazos) for several years,” O’Connell said. “This is our third distribution (on post). We’re going to be doing it every month on the first Thursday. Each household could have one to six people in it. We do between 40 and 50 pounds of food per household.
“We try to do at least 50% fresh produce,” she continued. “(Today) we’ve got corn on the cob, eggplants, all those root vegetables, melons, grapes — just tons of fresh produce. We’ll give them some protein — today we have pork, and then all these dried shelf-stable goods … so they get a nice mix, but we’re really trying to push the fresh produce so that people can get healthy food because that’s what’s most expensive. They’re all going to get, easily, a couple-hundred dollars’ worth of food. It’s just amazing.”
The Central Texas Food Bank sources its goods from local grocery stores, miscellaneous vendors and individual donors. O’Connell said this effort had a personal tie-in for her because her father is a veteran.
“We want to make sure that our Soldiers are taken care of,” she said. “They’re doing a lot of hard work for us, and their families who are supporting them, and right now, the economy is tough for everyone. The people who are defending us and protecting us — I want to make sure that they are taken care of so it’s really, really awesome for our organization to be here.
“From what I heard, we’re the first in the nation to actually get on a base and give food out,” she added. “We’re really proud of that, and we’re just excited to get food to even just a small portion of the Soldiers and families on our (post).”
Col. Lakicia Stokes, U.S. Army Garrison-Fort Cavazos commander, spoke to the fellowship aspect of the event.
“The Fresh Foods for Families program fosters a spirit of unity by bringing together volunteers on Fort Cavazos and the surrounding communities to support a common cause,” Stokes said. “This collaboration strengthens our bonds, showing how much we can accomplish when we work together to support our military families.
“I have had the privilege of meeting both recipients and volunteers during these events, and the gratitude expressed by families is truly heartwarming,” Stokes continued. “One memorable interaction was with a young Soldier who shared how the program relieved some stress for his family, allowing them to focus on other aspects of their lives.”
The Central Texas Food Bank and Fort Cavazos will celebrate the official opening of the drive-thru pantry Sept. 5 at Phantom Warrior Stadium and continue on every first Thursday of each month. The pantry is open to everyone with access to the post. For more information on Fresh Foods for Families, call the Garrison Chaplain’s Office at 254-288-6545. To learn more about the Central Texas Food Bank, visit www.centraltexasfoodbank.org.
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