- [Announcer] Funding for this program was provided by: The Mary E. Bivins Foundation, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

(gentle music) - There is nobody that food insecurity has not touched in some form or fashion over the past five or six years.

Things are so much more apt to thrust someone into the category of food insecurity than they've ever been.

There are many different ways to tackle it, and there needs to be different ways to tackle it and using all of our strengths to address it as needed.

- None of us are as good as all of us.

So there is no one in this community or in our country that has it all figured out, yet if we'll collectively come together for something bigger than ourselves, we got a real shot of making a difference.

- We all do things a little bit differently, and we're targeting different audiences.

- It should be the collective efforts of all of those organizations working together, using what they're good at to solve the problem that they're focused on.

- For me, that's why it's so important, because it's ever-changing, but it's something that can be solved.

When you put food on the table, it gives someone hope, it gives someone the ability to move forward, and it empowers them.

(gentle music) - I'm a huge fan of food banks.

I'm a huge fan of food pantries.

I think that these things are critical to our efforts to alleviate food insecurity.

In a broad sense, we know what alleviates food insecurity, economic growth, low food prices, and a stable social safety net against hunger, and in particular, SNAP.

- A federal government shut down in less than a day and a half appears unavoidable.

- The Plains Food Bank is seeing an increase in demand as the government shut down continues.

- Families across the area will be running out of food assistance this weekend.

- Several businesses and nonprofits are stepping up to help fill the gap that many people will fill in our area.

- The recent government shutdown, really, on the one hand, I think it did show, you know, it showed the importance of SNAP, right?

The good news was, all those benefits eventually were restored, but it was a tough two weeks before those benefits were restored.

There's also people who may not be eligible for SNAP, or for whatever reason, might not be getting SNAP.

They will turn to these food banks and food pantries for assistance.

- There have been some steps forward, but I think the challenges of just 2025 alone resulting from the government shutdown, for instance, has pushed some things back, thrust a whole new set of families and neighbors into the area of food insecurity that prior to, let's say November 1, weren't there.

- We're gonna have a whole lot of families that have to reapply for SNAP.

The landscape has changed.

Some will not apply.

Some will no longer qualify.

There's gonna be a potential whole lot of our population that's quite vulnerable.

We had a little test case in November, what this might look like.

SNAP was gone for six weeks.

What that was was a wake-up call.

- I think that it really pointed out the fact that these form, you know, in some sense, a last-ditch social safety net for people.

There are linchpins in the community, both during good economic times and in not-so-good economic times.

- There's still just a high level of need out there.

And just from our numbers alone and who we are serving, you know, at the beginning of 2025, over 12,000 households, which is up 20% from the pandemic, to now over 14,000 households, even after, you know, the government reopened, and SNAP benefits were restored to families that needed it, it's still there, and I think it's always gonna be with us, always gonna be a problem that we can address.

But it's all in the how I think here in the Texas panhandle that we work towards it.

(gentle music) I mean, High Plains Food Bank is here first and foremost, because we've got neighbors throughout the Texas panhandle who are struggling to put food on the table every single day.

For us, it's about that food rescue, food distribution, and, you know, bringing it to our partners and our neighbors all across the High Plains with the logistical system that we've built up, really, over the past 30 years.

(gentle music) Part of that solution is, number one, being a key driver in food waste to not only bring food that we have here on the High Plains, but also bringing it in from all across the state, even some parts of the nation, when it comes to fresh produce.

- In the United States, we just have just an amazing agricultural supply chain in terms of, you know, getting food from farms and ranches, in essence, not only across the United States, but across the world.

And so one of the strengths of having such a global agricultural supply chain is that we generally have low food prices and a stable amount of food.

(vehicle beeping) - About 25% of our food inventory comes from a program in USDA called the Emergency Food Assistance Program, where USDA goes in around the nation, helps stabilizes the market when supply exceeds demand, helping subsidized growers getting fruit and their crops out at the ground when it can't be sold, then, you know, canning it, sending it to a distributor, just like it does through the normal food channel.

But this comes to us here in the Texas panhandle with the whole idea of it is needs to be used to help our neighbors in need.

So it's a really great program.

It's a win-win for everybody involved.

Roughly about 74% that we bring in is donated food, and the remaining 1% there is really when we go and we purchase.

(gentle music) Being part of a national and a statewide food bank network has really been the key to helping offset some of these challenges that we receive, and the same thing goes (vehicle beeps) for today, even to where it could be a collaborative buying, you know.

One food bank's purchase power is still good, but having a statewide and nationwide network of over 200 food banks doing the same thing definitely brings costs down even more so, and supplies up.

- I think that that's actually an area where we need to figure out more creative ways to be able to purchase these foods at relatively low prices.

You talk to a lot of your programs running their backpack programs.

They're actually buying a lot of the food that is put into these backpacks for the kids.

(gentle music) - My mindset was how do we bring some of the principles and some of the things in the business world to the nonprofit world?

I think too many times, we are afraid to get out of our lane, go learn from others, go figure out ideas that may work in one industry that could be brought to this industry.

So I knew if we were gonna have long-term sustainability, we need to be able to purchase as a collective group, negotiate contracts, bring in premium items for our kids.

(gentle music) 99% of the districts in the Texas panhandle buy with a cooperative, okay.

If you look at hospitals, well over 80% of the hospitals in this country buy cooperatively.

And so why would we not take those two entities and use the same business principle that they do?

And so the buying cooperative for us has been incredibly powerful to the point where we have 120 communities in Texas that are a member of our cooperative for kids.

We save them $850,000 last year.

So that is real money that they didn't have to raise.

That's additional dollars that they could serve more kids.

But more importantly, on the end of those dollars are quality brand name products, Gatorade, General Mills cereal.

We are bringing our kids premium products, yet a lot of people are like, "Well, that's untouchable."

You can't do that yet, because of a buying collective cooperative representing 120 communities, almost 50,000 kids, you represent a potential business customer for all these manufacturers.

And then when COVID happens, that was really the first test.

Will the business principles that we brought here truly endure a very complicated, unprecedented situation?

It's all of a sudden there's a supply issue, there's a challenge issue.

Well, what every one of those those companies said is, we want to take care of our customer.

Well, we were seen as a customer.

So because of that, we always had food.

In fact, we had significant food that we shipped all over the country.

- There's something really neat about being able to provide food through this network to those who are in need in a personalized way, to say, "Look, I care so much about you that I'm going doing my time, talent, and treasure to making sure you have enough food."

I think that's something really special, and can't be overlooked in a lot of our discussions about their importance.

You see a lot of people who come to food pantries regularly.

A lot of people say, in some sense, they say that's a bad thing.

They shouldn't have to come there, but I'm like, well, maybe it's something that they enjoy doing.

Maybe they don't see a friendly face every day, but when they go to that pantry, they see a friendly face.

It's kind of an expression of love, saying, "I care so much about you that I'm gonna take my time and my talent and my treasure to make sure that you have enough food."

And I think that that's really a powerful thing that they can do.

- It's not only just about giving food, it's about getting to know each individual in person, treating them like the proud Texas Panhandle member that we are, knowing that we're stepping up for each other and learning about 'em.

Even if you have a 30-second window, it's about dignity, but it's also how we serve.

- We get a choice when we do this.

How are we gonna deliver it?

Are we gonna deliver it with dignity and respect, or are we going to deliver it in a way where you feel less than?

You're already frustrated, you're already struggling, that you may even need a resource that we provide.

The last thing I need to do is further demoralize you, take any little bit of hope that you have away by the way I serve you.

So if I give you something brand new and brand name, if I don't ask you 50 questions about where you live, what you drive, if I don't get into that, I just serve you with dignity and respect, it comes full circle here.

And I don't know how many people we've served that are now volunteering here, because we treated them with that dignity and respect that they needed at an incredibly difficult and vulnerable time.

- It's giving people food, that's great, but it's the connection that's more important.

It's not so much volunteering at a food pantry to give people food that's important.

It's volunteering at a food pantry, so that neighbor who comes through your door, you can say, "Look, I'm so happy you're here.

Here's some food for you."

You know, stop to chat for a bit.

Giving that sort of personal contact is so, so important.

And I talk a lot about this as this epidemic of loneliness that we hear a lot of talk about.

And I think that this really is a big problem.

I think that we can actually rely on our nonprofits, actually, to help address that a lot.

You know, so for example, this guy who I play tennis with, he and his wife deliver meals for Meals on Wheels, wonderful organization.

And he talks a bit about how when he is delivering food to people is, yes, the individuals need the food, but you know, what they need more than anything else is companionship, somebody to come to their house to say, "Look, I'm here dropping off the food."

He says, so many of the people will be like, they just wanna talk when they deliver the food.

And that is as important.

Nay, it's more important to have this is in terms of have this connection.

- My volunteers tell me it's the best day of their week.

They get to know their clients, and they consider 'em like family.

There's a lot of people that don't have any family.

Meals on Wheels is their family.

(gentle music) We deliver to home-bound seniors in the city limits of Amarillo.

To qualify for Meals on Wheels, a senior needs to be at least 60 years old, limited to no driving.

If no one is in the home that can help them prepare meals, pretty much, if we don't bring them a meal, they usually don't get a meal.

We pay BSA $4.75 a meal for our meals.

We actually charge our clients $4.75 a meal for their meals, the ones that can pay.

There's about half of our clients can pay, and about half of them can't pay.

For those clients that can't afford to pay, we have a scholarship fund, and I raise a separate restricted funds just for the scholarship fund.

If people are hungry, we're gonna feed 'em.

We don't deny anyone because they can't pay.

- Food insecurity is a manifestation of oftentimes deeper issues, whether it be mental health challenges, whether it be loneliness, whether it be other struggles that our people are facing.

So I think that in any way we can help out people is really important.

- One different thing about Meals on Wheels clients, they're very vulnerable.

Most of them, they're home bound.

They've got lots of disabilities.

They don't drive or they can't drive.

They don't have anyone that can help fix some meals.

Usually their family has unplugged their stove and their microwave because they're dangerous for them.

We have a lot of dementia, Alzheimer's.

So our clients are very vulnerable.

Very importantly, we try to get contact information, at least two contacts.

That way, if we can't get ahold of them, we can call someone and have them check on them.

You know, the food is vital to the clients, but that daily safety check is so important.

We find people in trouble all the time.

They don't come to the door, they don't answer the phone.

If we haven't gotten ahold of them in a short period of time, we call the police, and the police do a safety check.

Sadly, some people have passed away, but, you know, if it wasn't for Meals on Wheels checking on them every day, no telling how long they would lay there, and no one would find them.

- A lot of people are left behind, and I want to concentrate on those.

And I always mention four groups that are particularly at risk of food insecurity that we oftentimes forget about.

First of all, those with mental health disabilities.

Rates amongst that group is much, much higher than the general population, so we have to be really concerned with them.

Second is those suffering from addictions, those who are suffering from loneliness.

And then finally, those who are recently incarcerated.

Let's put this into the context of seniors.

A lot of seniors suffer from mental health challenges.

They're the ones at risk of food insecurity.

In other words, it's not seniors who are at large, but those with some of those characteristics, are coming back to this notion.

You know, as we become a more mobile society, there's a lot of seniors without people nearby to be with them, okay, and it makes a difference in terms of getting enough food, but also it just makes a difference in terms of loneliness in some of these things.

From my perspective, it's not worthwhile to say, look at this whole group, what's happening to them?

But instead say, who's most at risk of food insecurity amongst these groups?

- We help people that otherwise wouldn't have the help.

And for most, I would say all of our seniors that we help, they wouldn't have a meal if Meals on Wheels didn't bring it to them, and they can't prepare their meals.

And so that even makes them more vulnerable and more food insecure.

If they didn't have someone bringing them a meal, I don't know what they would do.

They would probably eat crackers or, you know, something not very nutritious.

And you know, for a lot of seniors, they're taking medications and things like that and they need to eat before they take their medications.

By having a consistent meal every day, we keep them out of the hospital, out of emergency rooms, because they have something they can depend on.

- I think one of the main reasons how they can alleviate this is just by being more cognizant of some of the challenges facing people.

Okay, SNAP is great, I love SNAP, but it's not good at, say, helping out that man who feels lonely, you know, 32-year-old who feels lonely, or that 26-year-old woman who just got out of prison, addressing some of the issues they face.

- We discovered that a lot of our clients have pets, and their pets are like family, but a lot of them don't have the money for dog food and cat food.

So they were sharing their meals with their pets.

What we did, we established what we call the AniMeals program, and we deliver dog food and cat food every month.

So hopefully the clients aren't sharing their meals with their pets, which is better for the people and the pets.

And in conjunction with that, we've partnered with the Texas Tech School of Veterinary Medicine, and they are providing free basic vet care for our clients' animals.

They have a new, it's called a CARES Mobile, and it's a mobile vet clinic that they can pull right up to the client's home, go and get the pet, bring it out to the mobile clinic.

They can do everything in the mobile clinic that they could do in the regular clinic.

It's very, very cool.

(laughs) - Our pets are so critical to us.

And so it's amazing what they have done to bring that element into their program.

But you know, that's a perfect example where they listened and didn't discount.

Sometimes we might discount them, that you shouldn't even have a pet.

If you can't afford food, why have you got a pet?

You know, that's the mentality some people have, and yet, that team has rallied an amazing resource in our community, the vet school, that's collaboration, that's a listening ear.

And so what they've done at Meals on Wheels in that element is a perfect example of what happens.

It's a simple, subtle thing that we have to do to bring people to the table, yet sometimes, our busyness shortcuts something, and we actually do more harm than good, because we don't bring those people to the table, and allow them to have a voice in the solutions that we bring to them.

When you do a taste test with kids, and then a month later, that thing that they tested is in their snack pack, I really do matter.

My voice does count.

When you unlock that potential that you're relevant, that you matter, and you are seen, game changer.

So we have kids making quarter of a million dollar business decisions for this organization.

- You know, there's upwards of 40 million Americans who are food insecure, and, you know, another 20 million who are at risk of food insecurity.

We have to figure out, they're clearly still in need, and our system of food banks and food pantries can really serve as a critical way of getting them food.

You know, what do food banks and their network of food pantries need?

First thing they need is, in some sense, treasure.

They need to have people figuring out different ways to give donations to them, whether it be donations of food or donations of money, which can then be used to purchase food at a discount.

That is critically important to it.

Coming to the second point is people's time, volunteering.

- Volunteers are our biggest need.

We have 10 open routes.

We have 38 routes all over town, and most people just run one route a week.

Some people run more than that.

And that is wonderful.

We'll take people as often as they wanna come, but most people just run one route a week, and we've got several companies and businesses that help us.

So that's really a great way for businesses to help.

The other thing would be funding.

We have an increasing amount of our clients that can't pay for their meals, even though they're fairly inexpensive at 4.75.

There's just a lot of people that can't afford that.

We used to contract with Northwest and BSA, and last year, about May of last year, Northwest came to us and said, "We're not gonna prepare your meals anymore," which was a real shock, because they prepared about half of them.

So luckily, and thankfully, BSA stepped up in a huge way, and they are preparing all of our meals.

We were paying $2.50 a meal prior to that.

And BSA looked at their costs and things and they raised the meal price to $4.75, which is still a good deal, but it almost doubled our food cost.

And so we need to make sure that we've got the money saved and allotted, restricted, for the scholarship fund.

So anybody that needs help with a meal, we don't have to hesitate, and we can just feed 'em.

- The beginning of 2025 is where we saw another inflection point for us when it comes to our donated product, and also our USDA side of food when we were informed that, you know, we had loads planned for us in 2025, about a dozen or so truckloads of food coming in that were canceled, so, I mean, we definitely had to pivot quickly.

We knew that we needed to be able to step up and meet those loads that are now missing.

So we saw a decrease in the amount of USDA food that we received last year, you know, for that reason.

And that kind of put us at a good time low as far as our average inventory goes last year, but signs are there of showing that's increasing now, but we're just not gonna be able to, we think, as of right now, meet that pre-2018 levels of non-perishable food that we have.

In a way, that's good.

In a way, that's not good, right, because, you know, it's not good because inventory is down.

But it's good, because we have an opportunity to focus on a lot of nutrient-dense food donations coming in.

And that's what you don't see behind me here or when you walk through our warehouse, 'cause it's in our coolers, it's in our freezers, so a lot of ups and downs.

The end of 2025 saw a good fundraising into the year for us, which will help us compensate, you know, again, for what we didn't receive in 2025.

- I think the first thing is you gotta go into this knowing things are gonna change.

If you're not even equipped with that mindset, they're going to change, and what you do today is not gonna be relevant in five years, you're already in trouble.

Are you ready?

SNAP goes away.

Is your organization ready?

Do you have the infrastructure?

Do you have the tools in place to deal with something that may come later?

We look back, said, what worked, what didn't?

What would we do different?

We know everybody now has to reapply for SNAP.

Does that mean I'm gonna have more kids on Snack Pak?

Absolutely.

All right.

So I'm not waiting for that to happen.

I'm not waiting for some new story in May to say, "Oh my goodness, more families than ever are now vulnerable and not on SNAP."

We are already putting things in place today to prepare for what may happen.

If it doesn't happen, no big deal.

To me, that's the biggest challenge we face constantly as an organization.

Are we always doing it with dignity and respect?

Are we creating an environment where kids are safe?

Are we creating an environment where they feel like they are truly treated as our future?

All the other things that come your way, that's just part of doing business.

You know, money goes, money comes.

Supplies come, supplies go, volunteers in and out.

But those that we serve, are they truly being treated consistently with that dignity and respect they deserve?

That's probably what keeps me up at night.

- I think a lot of it is education in what we do.

If we had a lot of resources available that would be able to give back, you know, be a part of the solution, give back to the communities, looking at our food system, and what it could really do, I think it would be a tremendous step forward.

Our USDA program that we're a part of, that is an important part of the farm bill that allows us to access this channel of food, is a prime example of that.

- I'm very optimistic about the future.

I believe that, and I know that our community is generous, and kind, and giving, and I know if we put the word out, Amarillo will step up, and they always have.

We had a good year this year fundraising-wise.

I was really happy with how we came out at the end of the year.

- You know, I think probably a lesson my Mam-maw gave me long ago: Whatever your gift is, use it.

The secret sauce of this place is the people.

They get to bring their gift to this place, yet we put too much stock in the wrong gift, okay, and my Mam-maw always taught me, use your gift, it's good enough.

You don't need to worry about somebody else's gift, but if you'll use yours, and everybody will use theirs, you create an environment where everybody uses theirs, game changer.

- Everybody has talents, and one talent I think I have, people just have a smiling face, greeting people when they come through, and figuring out neat ways to help out those who are most in need.

I think that those are some of the things that food banks do.

And I always tell people, you know, I think that it's just amazing stuff, amazing stuff that our food pantries, you know, in the panhandle area, the pantries are doing just amazing things.

The food banks are doing amazing stuff.

So I think that helping them out is really a critical way to operate out the community.

They're linchpins in the community.

(gentle music) ♪ We don't mind, we don't care ♪ ♪ Nothing's gonna phase us ♪ ♪ As we grow ♪ ♪ All the time that we share ♪ ♪ Sitting at this table ♪ ♪ Feeding bodies, feeding souls ♪ ♪ Talking fast, talking loud ♪ ♪ Making brand new memories with people that we love ♪ ♪ Make it last, not a doubt ♪ ♪ Been doing this for centuries ♪ ♪ We never get enough ♪ ♪ When we're gone we will pass it on ♪ ♪ We won't let go of the stories told ♪ ♪ And I know that ♪ ♪ Our history ♪ ♪ Is embedded deep in you and me ♪ ♪ Whenever you're by my side ♪ ♪ The weight of the world gets lighter ♪ ♪ I can tell that you understand ♪ ♪ You know that you're just like family ♪ ♪ To me, mm ♪