[Music] >>Libby>> Started with Monsignor Bridges and a couple of nuns who were going to drive some trucks, which I loved that story.

It was a Fred George, Monsignor Bridges and some nuns, and we were sharing a food bank with Lubbock, and they decided that we needed our own food bank, and they were correct.

And Fred turned around and said, well, I think I can get some trucks.

And so, okay, the nuns like, well, we can drive the trucks.

And so that sounds good.

And Monsignor was sitting there and he's like, well, I guess I'll find us a building.

>>Wade>> So the food bank started in 1985.

It was a response, a community response to a need, that was identified by a group of, a small group of community members, wanting to address the hunger in our local communities.

Uh, initially, it was called the Permian Basin Food Bank.

And, and continue to be called the Permian Basin Food Bank until 1995 when, uh Second Harvest, which was the predecessor to, uh feeding America, reached out to the Permian Basin food bank and asked if we would consider taking over the El Paso region in addition to, th the Permian Basin region that we were already covering, um, the board at that time, which I was not on the board at that time.

The board at that time agreed to that.

And shortly thereafter that took their same name of the West Texas Food Bank.

<<Don>> We had a, number of food pantries that were run by various churches.

But, uh there was no, uh central organization that could buy food in bulk or receive donated food in bulk and distributed to these different, smaller food pantries.

And food banking at the time was just becoming a thing across the country.

And Monsignor, who had started several other charities as well as uh, built several churches, uh, thought, well, we need a food bank.

- It was primarily a Catholic response.

Um.

Our original, Executive Director of the Food bank was a lady by the name of Dolly Neff, and she was a member of Father Bridges congregation.

Um, and, so, again, there was a strong tie back to the Catholic Church.

[Intro Music] >>Herb>> You know, the Bible teach us.

We should consider feeding those that can't feed themselves.

And so it felt like a very natural, uh thing for me to do.

They were, a grantee of the foundation.

And so I had to involve myself and doctor and myself indoctrinate myself with what they did, [music] what their impact was, etc.

what really turned it for me was the story that I got about.

Hah hah young kids would take the ketchup packets off of tables.

You going ketchup.

You really like ketchup that much?

They're going home and adding water to it and making tomato soup.

And I thought, it's that bad that that's pathetic.

I just this country has so much abundance, it has to be shared.

Well, we're instructed to feed people.

We're instructed to help people lesser than ourselves.

How can you allow that to happen?

I don't know.

- Uh, one of the original, uh Executive Directors was a woman named Dolly Neff.

And her husband, Allen Neff, was a deacon at our church.

And Father Bridges tapped her to be the first Executive Director.

And initially, she was driving the truck.

And we're talking about a pickup truck.

And ultimately that grew into more and bigger trucks.

And, of course, now they have, several CDL license drivers driving 18 wheelers and smaller box trucks, and.

- When it started up, they were probably doing well to do a half million pounds in a year.

They serve about 20 counties of West Texas, two of which are the largest in the state Brewster County and Culbertson.

I think, my job was to find money for them.

Sometimes that money would come from us directly, or we would, um pull on some of our partners who were also in the philanthropic, community to give money, or at least consider the food bank for recipient or receiving money.

- Uh I was the new banker in town, had been taking my position for about two weeks, and a gentleman shows up in my office and introduces himself as Don Bennett.

I I'd never seen him before in my life um, I didn't know he was a bank customer, and he, said he introduced himself and said that he wanted to show me something and asked if I would take a ride with him.

And so I almost felt like I was being kidnapped and brand new to town.

Never met a person before, and he wanted me to get in a car with him.

And so I'm like, okay, what are we going to do?

Um, and we ended up finding our way to the West Texas Food Bank, and, um we parked in the parking lot and things started making little more sense.

We're at the food bank.

Why are we at the banking?

That's why.

I just think, you know, as a as a new banker in town, you need to know about what's going on at the food bank.

And so he took me in.

I met Dolly Neff, and we took a tour of the warehouse, and then, um had our, said, our pleasantries left, and on the drive back to the bank, he said, we would really like for you to consider serving on the board of the West Texas Food Bank again.

Remember, I've been in town for two weeks, and I was very honored.

I'd never served on a nonprofit board at that time.

Um, but I agreed.

And, um then Don dropped me off and went back to my office.

The next morning, he called me and said, we had our board meeting, and you're now a new you're the newest member of the West Texas Food Bank Board.

And by the way, you're also our treasurer.

So not only was I a board member, I was also an officer on the board.

And I've been in town for two weeks.

>>Joni>> I think West Texas does has a have a spirit of truly giving any time they're aware of a need and it is just such a unique thing that we have here.

And I think the food bank embodies the generosity, spirit of generosity and compassion, and that we have is, as West Texas residents - The West Texas Food Bank now is not what it was like then.

It was very different.

And the more time that I spent [music] at the West Texas Food Bank, the more I wanted it to be better, the more I felt like our community deserved for it to be better, that our neighbors that we serve deserve to have a place that they felt comfortable coming to, and that kind of how it evolved into me getting to the West Texas Food Bank.

- It was pretty, rustic, let's say pretty basic.

Uh, we had, a rented building.

And ultimately I think we paid for that.

But it was an old liquor distributorship and, uh very small, very small offices, very small warehouse space.

And, uh we kind of just made do with what we had.

And then as time went on, we were able to move into bigger spaces, uh, when most of the time we were renting and, uh we tried a number of times, at least two that I was involved in to try and build new facilities.

And it always fell short.

But, uh ultimately we were able to build the new facilities that they're in right now.

And, uh it's still pretty amazing to think about is definitely a God thing.

- Uh, the food bank, again, was in a old basically ran down building on Second Street.

Um, we were using repurposed shelving, um.

You would walk into that facility and you felt poor.

I mean, that's just how it was.

And, um, and, you know, looking back on it, I was, can't imagine what it would be like to be a client to have.

That would be my initial engagement with the food bank.

Walking into this facility that looked ran down.

You know, you already feel like you're you're down and out.

And it's just that setting up has an exclamation mark on it when you walk into that ran down facility.

>>RJ>> Facilities are are really poor.

I mean um, we're operating out of an old warehouse with no air conditioning, with no windows.

Um at the time, it was mostly most of the volunteers were actually, um, um court order.

And so there was like ankle charging stations and the break rooms when you would go volunteer.

And so when you went there, you felt like you were going to a warehouse or you felt like you were going to an inner intermediary between prison and work life.

And so it really wasn't, uh a welcoming space.

It wasn't large enough, um.

And I think they were distributing around 3.5 million to 4 million pounds of food, and they knew the need was was much greater.

They just couldn't serve it.

And they also wanted to better serve their clients.

And so they wanted people to be excited, um when they came to, um the food bank about the opportunities because that's really what it's about.

- It was the, the way that they were, uh, um land locked, they had no room for expansion.

Uh, they had very little, frontal um, road space and the and getting the 18 wheelers in and out was horrible.

Um.

It was just it was time.

It had it had grown beyond its capacity.

- You know, early on, Don Bennett, um going back to Don Bennett, he knew that we needed to address our facilities issue, and we actually made a couple of, uh initial tries or stabs at trying to start a capital campaign to improve our facilities because the facilities were truly limiting the food bank, not only, limiting the amount of pounds that were able to move, it was also limiting visibility.

You know, people couldn't didn't even know we existed on Second Street.

And so elevating the facilities, elevating the equipment, elevating the space, um you know, just maintaining clean space, you know, if you're handling foods, you need to have a place that you uh keep the the rodents out, you know, and we had a really hard time doing that on Second Street because the building was at such an age that, um, we just were challenged with that, um It was not built to be a food bank, like the food bank that we have now.

uh Don knew that Don.

Don early on knew that he would he communicate that to the board.

I think the board agreed with him.

Um we started the capital campaign and raised a little money, but then we found out that, you know, this is a bigger task, and I think we were up to, um, so we paused the capital campaign.

Campaign.

And then um, we actually, had some turnover and our Executive Director position, um that was done when Dolly Neff, our original Executive Director, was still in place.

Dolly left, um the food bank in 2001.

And then, we actually went through kind of a series of executive directors.

And during that time, with the lack of stability and leadership, we didn't fill is the right time to start another capital campaign.

And then it was in 2012 when we brought Libby on as Executive Director, that we really felt we finally had the leadership in place that would allow us to truly, um you know, execute a capital campaign that would be successful.

And um, Libby brought an energy.

Um, we had a board that was actually more than just a handful of middle aged guys, um It was a more diverse board.

It was a larger board, a more energetic board.

It was just kind of a aligning of all the um, all the factors that were needed to have a successful capital campaign.

And, and again, I have to give huge props to Libby because she was someone that kept us all headed in the right direction, and also the one that kept pushing us, and that, you know, we ultimately were successful and been able to, to get the new building.

- You know, I don't think I've ever had a goal other than that we needed to do better, that our community deserved to have a food bank, that they want to bring their kiddos in to volunteer, to start teaching servant leadership.

That little hands can make a true huge difference in their community.

I mean, that was always the goal, and I feel like we've done that, um.

It was tough for us to figure out how to make sure that we are distributing enough food in each county for everyone who's in hunger, you know, who's hungry in those counties.

And I feel like we have done a really good job on that.

And I feel like it's how do we reach the community in our volunteerism so that they can learn about our work and all the different ways you can get involved with the West Texas Food Bank.

So my my goal 15 years ago was to build us new buildings that people could be proud of and that were effective and efficient for us to do our work.

Um, and now I think it just comes to how do we start reducing the lines?

- I think God had a hand in putting her there.

She is right where he wants her to be, and she is fundamentally the first reason it's become so successful as it has.

Uh, she's very she has great program uh, intellect.

- I guess we weren't a first tier nonprofit.

We were more of a second or third tier nonprofit.

Um, and of course, seeing the progress over the years because I definitely personally believe that the food bank is a first tier nonprofit.

Now, I tell Libby all the time, I said, isn't it nice to be the pretty girl at the prom?

Everybody wants to dance with you.

Well, we were the ugly girl at the prom.

I don't even think we were at the prom when when [laughs] I started in 1999.

- So I got invited to go to this fundraiser for the West Texas Food Bank.

And they did this odd fundraiser with works of art, and people had to bid on it.

But we had a video that was filmed by PBS, and the food bank was talking about the partnership with all of us doing Food2Kids.

And I was still at this point just to chairman and, um, Wade who I didn't really know very well, who's now become one of my close friends, uh walks up to me and says, you know, we love Food2Kids.

And you know what, I love the video and what you guys are doing.

And I think I turned to him and said, well, do you want to write a check?

And he literally just started laughing.

That was like one of the first interactions I ever had with Wade.

Keuhler was asking him to write a check for the for the Food2Kids backpack program.

So.

[Music] So, the following year, I guess I'd taken the position here at the food bank as the director in May, and it came to that, we would do a fundraiser in September.

And I remember looking around at everybody at the food bank board and thinking, I'm going to have to get some of my my lady friends who we do events together to help.

So we got together, a group of us from Junior League, and we did this joint fundraiser for Food2Kids and the West Texas Food Bank, and we were going to split the profit.

So we did and came up with a new event, you know, a new theme, you know, and it was great.

We had VIP, we ended up raising more money than we had than the food bank had ever raised at an event that night.

And, um, that that was kind of the beginning of, of the, of the success, I think, of the food bank, that one event, I think was a changing moment to get more people involved and truly learn about what our work really was and is.

- I think it is so important the one of the things that, as a as, as my foundation, but I think is the broader philanthropic community in the Midland Odessa area.

One of the things that we want to do is be able to give to the to the entities and to the agencies that are having the biggest impact, who are doing the most necessary and the most basic work for the people in our communities.

And so it is important to help them do the work that they do, without having them encumbered with financial strain and stress of being able to to meet the needs that are out there.

>>Teresa>> You know, partnership are what makes everything happen you don't something this big in such a need.

And our community doesn't just happened with one person, one organization or one facility.

- You know, I think that's one thing.

We have over 100 different partner agencies in the 19 counties that we serve, and they're known within their neighborhood or within their little town or their community.

They've built trust with the community and the people.

And so I feel like that brings people to say we need help.

I feel like over the last 15 years, the West Texas Food Bank has made sure that our communities and our donors, our clients or neighbors that we serve trust us.

>>Roy>> From the foundations standpoint to see the opportunity to come alongside an organization like the West Texas Food Bank and and grow that impact, grow that influence.

Right.

And a true direct impact to those that, um might be in a down time and need a leg up.

That is is something our foundation certainly strives for and was able to do here with the food bank.

- Because sometimes you you get the impression with nonprofit organizations who are providing very basic services that they have to operate out of a hole in the wall.

The people that need these services deserve the dignity and the same service as the rest of us get.

Why can't they get their groceries from a nice facility?

Why can't they get their medical care from a nice clinic?

It does not have to be a substandard facility.

- Yeah.

At Parkhill our mission is building community.

And so when we look at an organization like the food Bank and what they're able to do and how they're able to serve community, you know, a, a building and, uh, uh having somewhere to live is a basic need, but it's it's below the need to eat and know where your next meal is going to come from.

Because it's not that some people don't have uh, access to food, it's that they they don't know where their food is going to come from.

So to be able to serve our community and one of the, the number one basic needs that they have to where then maybe a building becomes important.

- So the idea came that we neede to create a safe space for when people come in to ask for help, that their kiddos can feel safe and have fun.

But yet we can have one of those honest conversations of why we're here.

So we created the first playground in the Odessa campus, and it's indoor and it looks like a big Chick-Fil-A has a huge inspiration quote wall, um.

And you'll notice the wall is windows and that's our social service.

Those are our social service workers offices so that their kiddos can go play in there and they can have true conversations of why people are where they are.

You know, I think hunger doesn't have a face.

So I think that's the same as it was before, um.

We didn't have a lot of programs.

Um, we didn't do a lot of distribution.

We didn't buy a lot of food.

We didn't bring in a lot of produce.

Um, it was kind of like a boxes in, boxes out, salvage, reclamation kind of thing.

And, and a small government contract for TEFAP The Emergency Food Assistance Program.

And that was kind of it.

You know, I think at that point we only distributed about 2.7 million pounds of food a year, and I think we only fundraised about 1.8 1.9 million a year.

[Music] >>Brent>> So, when I first came to the food bank, it was, uh it was it was really a great experience.

Um.

We did about 6 million pounds of food a year back then.

Um.

Things were very different.

We were very agency focused and, um you know, we were trucking food all over the place to our agencies.

And uh, then Covid happened.

And I remember standing out on the street almost at Andrews Highway with a mask on, just watching all these cars showing up at our facility and trying to get them to line up, going, what the heck?

And it just changed.

I mean, everything changed when Covid happened.

I mean, we just we started doing in-house pantries because we needed to because some of the partner agencies closed.

Um.

And we just, we, we doubled what we did.

I mean, we went from 6 million pounds a year to I think we're at like 13.5 now or something.

>>Autumn>> Libby fought for this food bank.

She fought to get National Guard.

She fought to get more food in here.

She was on the phone with local and state officials almost every single day.

Yelling at them.

[laughs] Because we were in a need.

We were desperately in a need.

We had oilfield people who so many oilfield people who didn't have a job anymore, who didn't, couldn't go to work, wasn't getting paid.

And I had a I'll never forget this.

I had a lot of phone calls because I was in charge of pantries and everything else, um that had to do with programs.

And so I had a lot of phone calls of people calling me and asking me how they can get help, where they can go.

They don't.

They've never used a resource like the food bank.

So they didn't even know where we were.

And this one man called me and he told me, he said, I have four kids at home.

I have been laid off from my job.

We are running through our savings and he's just sort of bawling on the phone, bawling on the phone.

And, um I tried to be as comforting as I possibly could.

I tried not to cry because I am emotional person too.

So when someone starts crying, I will cry with you.

I tried not to do that with him.

Um.

But then I had the crying with him too, because it was just a, very sad situation.

And he also too, he was like, I've never.

Ever had to use a. Resource like y'all.

And it's not something that I want to do.

I don't want to come to the food bank.

But he was like, I have no choice.

I don't have any choice anymore.

It's either I pay my electricity or my kids don't get fed.

And so I was like, well, if you come to the food bank we will absolutely help you.

There's no judgment from us.

We got off the phone together, and I remember just going and sitting in my car and I, I like I said, that was not the first phone call I had with that.

And I just started crying in my car because I was I was just like, this is.

This is crazy.

>>Joey>> I mean, so everybody shuts down.

We don't have any volunteers.

And, you know, we normally put out seven a normal year, 7 million pounds of food and all sudden Covid kind of hits.

We double that like that 100% increase.

So now we're 14 million pounds of food.

We only got 55 employees to process that kind of food.

Absolutely.

No way.

So and we had no volunteers either.

I mean, it was empty.

I mean, no one could come over.

We you know, we had to kind of, you know, keep our distance.

You know, isolate and all that.

But we still had to do the job.

You know, the expectation was the food bank was frontline.

We still got to make it happen, especially when we got all these cars that are running over there.

You got 4 or 500 deep, even 550 deep at one point, I think maybe even more.

But we couldn't do it with the volunteers.

So, I mean, I give credit to the National Guard for sure.

There's no way we wouldn't have made it without them.

>>Mark>> We learned to work around similar restrictions, um.

A lot of during Covid, um our staff worked extra hours and then about until June of that year, um the governor released alot of the National Guard to come help different food banks, different areas and help.

We actually had a bunch of, uh National Guard come in and we were able to push through for quite a while with with the National Guard help.

>>Martha>> Uh the National Guard came to help, which was a huge help for us.

Um, after they were gone, after they weren't coming back anymore, we had to get out there and that, let um everyone know you can come to the food bank.

We are temping everyone.

We have masks, we have gloves, we have washing stations.

Um, please don't be, you know, afraid to come and volunteer.

The need is out there.

The, you know, community has grown.

Um.

And but they would and they would come.

They would come maybe like a group of ten to test the waters, uh.

And then when they would see, like, okay, it is social distancing.

We are wearing gloves.

We're not uh, our group is private from another group.

We're not, you know, intermingling.

uh Then it would be like, okay, within 20 people and we'll send 30 people.

So slowly it grew.

And then it was like, okay, guys, we're not going to do the temping anymore.

We're not going to wear the mask anymore.

But that is up to you.

We don't require it, but you certainly can.

Um and it just slowly grew from there.

And now we have a huge volunteer base.

Um, we love to have sometimes we have so many volunteers.

And what a wonderful problem to have And we're like, well can you do this?

You're here maybe where this line is too full for you to join in on this, but we'd love for you.

Can you do this part or can you do that part?

So, there we expose them to much more things at the food bank than maybe building boxes.

[Music] - I think we are so fortunate to have Libby and her staff here at the West Texas Food Bank, because I think it's them that helped draw the volunteers in and keep them coming back, uh.

It's just the atmosphere and climate that they have created here that really gives people the desire to want to give back.

And this facility is beautiful.

Who wouldn't want to be here and help and and then be able to see the difference it makes?

- We really could use about 1000 volunteers a month.

And I mean, truthfully, we could use a thousand volunteers a month every month.

Um, and we come pretty close to that.

We have like, so we have a great volunteer basis and we really appreciate all their help.

>>Giles>> There was, a gentleman that had been volunteering here for a while, and I showed, the there was a couple of other volunteers, uh, regular thirsty volunteers that I knew that were friends of mine.

And, uh gosh, I've been here for two and a half years.

Uh, they're they're regulars every Thursday, and a couple others have joined that Thursday group.

So it's it's a good group of regulars.

There's there's also some companies, uh, uh, local companies that, uh they get to come in and help load the food each, each Thursday it gets busy, uh.

Putting the food into the cars.

So there's there's definitely help needed here.

Uh.

Nonprofits.

It's its hard for nonprofits to operate without having volunteer help.

- We we could not do what we do without volunteers.

Um, we need volunteers to build boxes in our warehouses.

We need volunteers to load cars when we're serving people.

We need volunteers to show up in the counties when we do outreaches because, you know, just depending on how many people were serving.

Like I said, we may serve 300 people in a county, and we've sent two staff members, and there's just no way they can do it without volunteers.

>>Lorraine>> Volunteers are the most important component because those people are doing that in addition to their regular lives, where they have jobs that keep them very busy, and families and other civic activities.

But they have a heart to help people.

And when you help people and they are fed and satiated, they are better workers in our community.

They are better students in our classrooms and become vital and important parts of the community that helped grow our entire economy.

>>Minka>> Well, I would say that the uh major oil companies being here in Midland have been an incredible help.

They are an incredible not only financial resource for the food bank, but they have have employees that volunteer and that help.

They help by not only sacking food, uh on the food bank side, on the Food2Kids side, but on the food bank side, they do food drives, they come in and the grocery stores donate, but you have to go through and you have to look and see, is this canned, slightly dented, can it be used?

Will it meet the requirements or does it need to be tossed?

You know, is it is it at risk of of having bad food in it?

>>Courtney>>ExxonMobil has been a long time supporter of the West Texas Food Bank.

Um, we just believe it's important to be a good corporate citizen in the areas where we operate and our employees live.

We have a huge employee base that lives in the Permian Basin.

These employees are not transient.

They don't come in on Monday and leave on Friday.

They live here with their families.

So it is so important to our employees that we support organizations like the food Bank because they are passionate about volunteering.

Our employees give selflessly to organizations all across the Permian Basin, including the West Texas Food Bank.

So they sort produce, they pack senior boxes, they prepare Food 2Kids backpacks for the weekend.

They will do just about anything that is asked from the food bank because they care so much about the community, which we call home.

- And the staff at the food bank is phenomenal.

Libby has put an unbelievable group of people together that are passionate and hardworking to do the same work that the volunteers were passionate and hard working to bring to our communities throughout the Permian Basin.

So it's kind of a match made in heaven.

- Some of the some of the regular patrons you get to see each month.

Also, it's uh it's good to see see those those also.

- Without involving people that don't usually volunteer in this kind of effort.

We opened that up and got a much larger volunteer base that is passionate.

It has expanded now in throughout the Permian.

Oil companies are involved, all of their employees.

It has become an integral part of the fabric of this entire region to feed the hungry.

- We average anywhere from 10 to 20 employees a month that come through.

We have various employee resource groups, so we've got a group that's here, um sponsoring.

That's the gold group.

We have a group that's the vast group, which is our veterans group.

We have the Permian One group with its employees that are in year one through five with the company that volunteer.

And we've got a women's interest network group.

And so all of these groups, along with just our general employee population, when the call goes out for volunteers, signups happen immediately and slots are full.

They're like, yes, I absolutely want to go and do that.

And the food bank is such a friendly environment that employees can bring their spouses and children along to volunteer, which is a great opportunity.

>>Jan>> We have probably about 16 to 18, volunteers on the first distribution, and we have four distribution dates during the month.

They start off on the first Saturday, goes on to the next Tuesday and then the Thursday and then the next Saturday.

And we make them at different hours of the day so that people can access the, uh food pantry easy.

That way.

We only operate in that first week of the month because we do.

We're lucky enough to get fruits and vegetables and such through the West Texas Food Bank also.

So to maintain the freshness of those vegetables and get them out to everybody, we distribute in that first week, and then if anybody calls us and needs food, one of us will meet them here and and get their food.

[music] - The farm bills every five years, the uh the federal government has to go in and, you know, redo it, vote on it again.

And so they make changes in it.

And so, um, you know, it depends on who's in in charge, whether which party they always have things they want to do.

You know, sometimes they want to add stuff, sometimes they want to take stuff away.

And so, um when it comes to wanting to take stuff away, if it affects us, we definitely want to be there to let them know how important their food and what they do for us, and how important that is and what we do with it.

So the farm bill, it's a it's a program through the federal government that helps, the ag community with, you know, loans and things like that.

And, you know, a lot of times the federal government has to go in and purchase things from, ag producers to kind of keep the commodities and everything good.

So, um, what ends up happening is that sometimes they will purchase, you know, corn from the corn producers.

And what do they do with that corn?

They have to give it to someone.

So they give it to food banks because we can use that food to help feed people.

Or if, you know, they have to go and buy milk, uh from the milk producers and they need to do something with that milk, what do they do with it?

They give it to uh, food banks and that's called, TFAP The Federal Food Assistance Program.

[Music] - Every year, just, you know, before Covid, I remember we got the map the meal gap back.

It's this thing that Feeding America does and measures poverty and people and hunger and, you know, so on and so forth.

They do it every year.

And I remember right before Covid, it was in February, we got map the meal gap and we had actually reduced childhood hunger in West Texas.

The needle had actually gone down.

And I was thinking, we're doing the right thing.

All this education, all these different programs, outreach to parents, to the school districts, um, all the events, like we're starting to truly have an impact.

And then Covid came and that definitely changed the landscape of hunger.

So it wasn't we're we're fighting.

I feel like now of workforce development, we're fighting, you know, um the economy itself, inflation, you know, natural disasters.

I mean, you kind of go through the list and I think that it's hard to figure out how you reduce lines, but I think you have to take the time to spend with each individual to figure out why they're in the situation they're in and how do we help them get out of that.

So it's it's definitely something that you just have to dedicate time and passion for our work to truly walk beside our, our neighbors.

- The fourth generation is the level of services that are being provided at the food bank.

So it's not a matter of just giving people food.

You know, that's more of a first generation of them.

Food bank is they they glean surplus food from the community and then provide that to those in need.

This basic level of services, and then each generation is just an increased level of service.

And so, um the West Texas Food Bank now is a fourth generation food bank, which means that they're providing social services or they're actually working with clients, um to meet more of a holistic need.

Um, the fifth generation will take that even further, where they're truly, totally making connections into the community.

You know, if a person comes to the food bank and the reason that they're needing food is that they're out of work, then maybe they need job skill training, right?

Or maybe they need help writing a resume.

Or maybe it's because they have language barriers.

Well, the food bank then would interface with that client and help them overcome those challenges and connecting them with the resources in the community that would give them that job, skill training that they need, or the language services or whatever that is that they're facing.

Or maybe they're facing a medical challenge and they're needing help, you know, addressing a medical concern that's keeping them from being able to work.

They would actually, you know, interface with that client and help them resolve the root cause of the need.

Um, because, you know, we don't want I don't think anyone really wants to go to the food bank, you know, time after time after time, we all want to be self-sufficient, but sometimes we don't have the tools to be self-sufficient.

And so that fifth generation food bank is going to give them or assist the client in getting the tools they need so that they can be they can sustain themselves without the need of, um charity.

- We have a great new program here at the food bank that we have just recently taken on, and we're calling it Navigate Forward.

And it is just a way to help people in our lines and who are getting our services if they want to get out of the cycle of poverty.

Um it's a it's a we have a case manager who can help them kind of navigate some tools that they could do to maybe help that help that happen.

Uh, maybe send them to interview classes or um, classes on how to dress or find out where they might get a CDL or if they need to get into housing assistance.

And she just kind of helps them navigate the process because it's a scary thing.

And, and there's lots, lots of hoops to jump through when you're trying to work with any agency federal, state government.

So this navigate forward is the next new thing we're doing.

And we're just trying to to help people get out of the cycle, get out of our lines.

Like I said earlier, in the perfect world, we would love to put ourselves out of business.

We had a lady recently who came in and she's in an abusive relationship, and, uh her, her employer actually brought her and wanted to help her get out of the cycle of abuse.

And so our Navigate Forward, uh social worker was able to help her get out of that situation and into a safe place.

So we have all kinds of great relationships with places such as Safe Place or Casa de Amigos.

[Music] - I have an amazing staff, and I have a very supportive board and community leaders who support our work, and they are depending on myself and our staff to continue to make things better.

And you have those little moments where you see a little kiddo come in and they're so excited they got an apple, or you see a grandmother come in and she's so excited because she's going to have food to feed her kids that she's watching while her daughter's at work.

You see the elderly so excited to get government cheese, you know, or just, you know, it's just those faces I think is what keeps you motivated or at least has kept me motivated to come to work every day and try to continue to think of new and different and innovative ways for us to meet the needs within our community.

Because West Texas, we are different.

I do say, um and you know, we do go all the way down to the border.

So the further south you go, the more interesting our landscape becomes.

And so our personalities down there too, are interesting and fun and different than what you see in Midland, Odessa or Big Spring.

So I just think that you have to continue to think about who is depending on you every day.

And it's not just our neighbors we serve, it's also our staff.

Our staff is looking to me to figure out a way to make this better.

- They're really good about giving us advice, explaining how their different programs work, and wanting to offer their services to our community so they give us options.

You know, everything doesn't fit the same community.

We all have different needs.

We all have different programs.

We all have different resources.

But the West Texas Food Bank is there kind of like a counselor and a business advisor.

So they're able to come in and help us put all of the things together that we need specific for our community in order to feed the people that we need to.

- Uh they say, you know it's not a handout, it's a hand up and it's really that opportunity, um for our fellow West Texans, to get a little help when they need it.

- Because everybody wants a life of worth and service and purpose.

And this is an organization.

And an effort that is filled with purpose.

- We distribute close to 14 million pounds in those 19 counties, and we fundraise close to $9.8 million.

Um we've done successful three very large capital campaigns.

That equals about 30 to $33 million worth of facilities in the 15 years since we've all been here together, um and we have brought so much more programing and outreach to our community, not just in Midland and Odessa, but all of our 19 counties throughout West Texas.

If you think about Food2Kids is now a backpack program, it is a program of the West Texas Food Bank.

We have Kids Cafe, which now has 15 sites across the 19 counties cooking food for kiddos every day.

We have a formula and diaper program.

We have school pantries and any school that wants them in West Texas thanks to ExxonMobil.

Um, we also have school pantries now on ever higher ed education campus.

So if you think of Howard Odessa College, Midland College, UTPB or Sul Ross, they all have student pantries to help out those kiddos who are trying to finish their degree path.

And that's amazing.

We now have a senior box program that feeds close to 22 to 2300 seniors every month.

With the box program, um, we've also expanded into a Navigation Forward program, which is actually sitting with our neighbors and really walking them through, getting them out of our lines, which is the purpose, which can be up to a 1 to 2 year process with with our clients that we work with.

And we have a gardening education program now, we have a nutritionist on staff who does close to 30 classes every month across the 19 counties of teaching people how to shop at the grocery store, how to prepare food, how to cook food, how to store it, um.

We have kids activities, we have farmer's markets, we've got Earth Day.

You just kind of go through everything that we've been able to grow to is truly answering the call of the community because they they keep coming.

You know, this is we're listening to what our community says that they want of us, and we are trying to to meet that need.

- There is a friend that back when Libby went from the volunteer side to the director of the food bank that said to her, you know, the food bank is the worst nonprofit in Odessa.

I remember it well.

Well, now it's gone to the best nonprofit in the entire region.

And that is because, thinking outside the box building, not just for today, but for tomorrow and constantly looking at better ways to serve and expand that service that meets all the needs.

Who would have ever predicted Covid?

What you know, 100 years since we had something comparable.

So having the infrastructure to meet that need and build for the possibility of that in the future, as well as disaster relief, um in our area and around the state and nation, because it it takes a village and that village can be large at different times, but you learn about by looking outside the box and into the future.

You don't know what the next thing is going to be that is going to cause a new hardship for people.

And we all know that because we lived through Covid and we've lived through other disasters in other parts of the country.

[Music] - Initially, they served countie from El Paso to Big Spring to, uh just south of Lubbock, Lamesa and down to San Angelo.

And, uh over time that we spun the El Paso Food Bank into their own entity.

So that's no longer under their purview.

But initially, we distributed about 200,000 pounds of food, which sounds like a lot, until you consider the fact that, uh this last year, they did 13 million pounds of food.

- Uh, some people come in monthly, and some people only come in every few months or something like that.

So but we, we have probably.

Oh, um, about 500 families.

- Uh Karen, the Director of Ward Country Greater Works is very good about finding the bargains and being able to acquire the food that we need to keep these families sustained throughout each and every month.

- For, uh 91% of our total, you know, costs, total expenses goes towards some food program, food feeding program, uh some educational program, or a nutrition program.

So, yeah, $0.91 of every dollar goes to, to uh a food program.

And the rest of it's going to be like fundraising or, you know, those kind of costs like that.

But yeah, so we pride ourselves on that for sure.

- Just there, there they reach I was blown away by the, the, the classes and all of the gardening and all the things they do aside from giving food, but then taking that in a silo, but then looking at everything else they're doing, in the 19 counties, I mean, that's a huge geographic area that they are reaching.

And how they do that boggles my mind how they get the food from here to all of those places hundreds of miles away completely blows me away.

- Um, it's, you know, we have every county.

We have someone who has a pantry, a school, a church, a senior center, something.

But some of those counties just don't have enough, um partner agencies, pantries.

And so we have to serve those people ourself.

So we have an outreach team that goes to those counties and once or twice a month we serve food to those people.

But I think it's just about getting the food to the people who need it.

And, uh you know, a lot of what we do is we truck food, we drive, we spend lots of money on fuel trying to serve the people in these rural counties.

And I think that's probably one of big our biggest obstacles, is getting the food and the service to the people who need it.

- We actually serve northern Brewster County, which then includes Marathon and Alpine and just the northern part of Alpine.

We kind of um stop at Terlingua.

And they have their own food pantry down there.

- Now, a lot of what we do.

Is provide foods for different agencies like Catholic, such as Catholic Charities, Permian Basin Mission.

We provide food for them.

Um and most of what our biggest thing for our food bank is we have buying power.

So where they go out and buy 2 or 3 cans of corn, I buy a truckload at a time.

I get a truckload savings so I can help our agencies out as a as a wholesale place.

- I mean, all of that is important.

Anything that we get out of the farm bill, we can use if if it's any kind of food, you know, it could be it could be peanuts, it could be corn, it could be beans, it could be, you know, lentils.

We get lots of lentils and we can do some really cool stuff.

Our dietitian can teach people how to make some amazing recipes with lentils.

So pretty much anything we get, we can use.

And we can teach people how how to make a meal with.

>>Kayla>> A lot of what that looks like is teaching classes.

So we teach here at the food Bank, we teach gardening and nutrition classes to kids, or we do lots of tasting fruits and vegetables, learning to like those.

And then we do a lot of cooking and food budgeting classes as well with adults, um where we teach, what is the lowest cost, highest nutrition food within each food group.

And so our food pharmacy program is one where if somebody has been hospitalized for a nutrition related chronic disease or and diagnosed with a nutrition related chronic disease, they will then, uh give them a referral to us if they also screen as likely to be food insecure, likely to, not have enough money to purchase, uh nutritious foods for their disease state.

And so with that, they'll come here and we teach a short nutrition class.

Right now, we're in a series on diabetes, um and we've taught just general nutrition in the past.

And I'm sure we'll we'll start a new series in a couple months.

On a different topic, um probably heart health, but.

[Music] So our Kids Cafe program is where we cook about almost 600 meals per day during the school year currently and then deliver them to different sites around the Permian Basin.

And then during the summer, we we prepare almost a thousand meals per day, in addition to about a probably 7 to 800 snacks per day.

Um that we also deliver those to other sites around the Permian Basin.

- I love school pantries.

I really do think they're very beneficial, and I really love that the student gets to go and pick out items out of that school pantry to help feed their siblings.

In case their parents are working multiple jobs and are not home at dinner.

Um, in case they overhear their parents talking about.

How they need.

More money for their bills and how they're getting laid off or anything like that, but they're able to go in and shop.

>>Barbara>> We had a program from Crestview Baptist Church that we got bags for kids on Friday.

We called them Friday Bags.

Well, when that stopped, I don't know.

They were talking about doing Food2Kid bags.

Ms Yarbrough can were gonna do Food2Kid bags on Friday after that.

Okay.

Well, I don't know whatever.

And what had happened, we had, um children who had food deficiencies.

- So our schools are very good about hosting food drives for us around Thanksgiving and Christmas.

They'll even have competitions to see who can do the most.

And then they give pizza parties or all different kinds of things like that for the classroom that collects the most through that.

Then it's picked up and it's brought here to use throughout Christmas and Thanksgiving and throughout the year.

If we get enough that's supplied for that.

We have organizations like the women's Division of the chamber, and they do a pie auction every year and raise money that goes straight to the Food 2Kids Backpack program.

Excuse me.

And you know that that seems like so little.

But, you know, we serve over 200 kids a year, and that's giving them a bag of food every week.

- It's more than the book.

You have to get to know the person.

My thing is when you go to town to buy shoes, you want to know how the shoes gonna fit and how theyre gonna look, well, the same thing apply to that child.

What are you going to do to open that can and get that can to give out to you what he needs so you can help him.

And I call them little cans, lets open them up.

They're going to receive something because once they empty you can fill them up.

So it's our job to teach the whole child.

If you can't reset an entire person, you've left out something.

- One of our, school pantry shared the story with me.

It's in Odessa at a middle school, and they had told me that one of the kids that came to get food.

And um took the food home, and it was a very first time using the food pantry.

They had never, never needed it, never used it.

Um, so the counselor was just like, is everything okay or is family fine?

What's going on?

And he was like, well, I overheard my parents talking about how they are getting worried about their budget.

And their bills, and how they're going to have to be short on their budget for groceries.

So I thought, I have just help and come to the food pantry and help them out and get food.

So kids are listening.

They are.

They want to help.

- It was something we found out that the cleanest kids were always the ones who had bigger food deficits, but it was a pride thing.

Very proud.

And so we started it.

We got into it that way.

And West Texas Food Bank came in with with the Food2Kids bags and I thought, okay, whatever.

And it has just grown.

We started that.

We had about 30 or 40.

Then people found out that they could get food for the children on for the weekend.

We had kids said, we don't have anything on the weekend.

I said, what are you talking about?

Well, we don't eat on the weekend.

We don't eat a whole lot.

We may have maybe just one meal.

- You know, we serve over 200 kids a year, and that's giving them a bag of food every week.

That's a lot of students.

That's a lot of money.

So we do that and we provide that service.

We have a church here that has a once a month, a drive through, where you can pick up a box of food.

And not only that, we also have uh blessing boxes all over town.

So we use like our Lions Club or any type of service organizations that want to they will go and put food in those blessing boxes around town where anybody can stop by and pick up food as they need it.

- You know, when I started in 99 it kind of felt like there's this small group of people that were trying to keep the food bank together, and it was that small groups, food bank.

Now I feel like it's truly the community's food bank, that it gets support from corporate uh community partners, from foundations, from individuals.

You know, it's one of the probably the most supported nonprofits in town, uh or in our area from individuals, which I think says volumes that people are choosing to use their limited resources to support the food bank, um.

It's just very heartwarming.

- I think the West Texas Food Bank has set the bar for food banks around the country.

- Our our beauty is in the people, and a lot of that is seen through the generosity, um from those that that have done well in business and oil and gas.

But um, time might be our, most restrictive resource out here.

- And there, but by the grace of God, go all of us.

And if we don't help when we're on the other side of it, shame on us, because you don't know when you can be on that side of it and you're the one needing the help.

- Jesus told us, you know that I was hungry and you know, did you feed me?

That I was without clothing?

Did you clothe me?

You know, those are the questions I would ask myself, you know, and we as Christians are called to love our fellow man.

And I saw my service to the food bank in the services.

The food bank provided the community as a way of expressing and sharing that love.

- What's my favorite food?

- Peanut butter.

Crunchy peanut butter shell.

Yeah.

I don't need a spoon.

- My favorite food is steak.

- Most days, I would probably say macaroni and cheese.

- When I was a kid, I vowed that when I get a job, I'm gonna eat pizza every day.

- Italian food.

Is my favorite food.

Yup.

Food or dessert?

[Laughter] - Pizza was my I would just pizza, pizza, pizza can tell us a little bit of pizza still on me.

- If I were to have a last meal at this moment of time, it would be hot dogs and gummy bears - My favorite food?

Food.

- But now my kids.

Now what I want to eat for dinner.

Pizza again.

I can't stand pizza.

- Chips and salsa, and queso all day, every day for every single meal.

- I am a pasta freak.

- That being said, I would say okay, pizza.

[Music]