Ministries in Texas to help combat severe food shortages

For the second year in a row, Texas had the second-highest rate of household food insecurity in the country, according to a study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

According to Household Food Security in the United States in 2023, food insecurity has increased over the past year at both the state and national levels.

A household is considered to be food insecure if, at any given time of the year, its members lack the means to obtain sufficient food for all the persons living in the household.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that by 2023, 18 million households – about 47 million people, including 13 million children – in the United States will have experienced food insecurity at some point.

The USDA Economic Research Service report showed that food insecurity in Texas was 16.9% last year, second only to Arkansas at 18.9%. The food insecurity rate in Texas increased by 1.4% from last year.

In addition to Texas and Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Carolina were the states where food insecurity was above the national average.

Food security is a priority

Texas is among the states with the worst hunger because “food security for our low-income population has not been a comprehensive priority of the state,” says Jeremy Everett, executive director of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty.

And historically, it has not been a priority for most elected officials because the people of Texas, for the most part, have not seen it that way, he added.

As a result, children and the elderly go to bed hungry and available hunger relief programs are not being fully utilized, he said.

Texas Health and Human Services Commission staff are working hard to process Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) applications, but since the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency has been understaffed and under-resourced, he noted. As a result, applicants often face long wait times before being approved for food assistance.

In Texas, more than one in six households is food insecure, meaning 1.8 million families – about 5.1 million people – are at risk of hunger.

“These alarming numbers reflect the growing need that food banks are seeing in our state’s communities,” said Cecilia Cole, CEO of Feeding Texas, the state’s association of food banks.

“We have the tools and resources to end hunger, but our vision of a hunger-free Texas can only be achieved through policy change and collective action across the public, private and charitable food sectors. Food banks alone cannot end hunger.”

Hunger relief organizations see need

The statistics confirm the observations of people who serve in ministries across the state that receive funds from the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering.

“The new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report on the appalling food shortage in Texas confirms the alarm bells that Texas Baptist Hunger Offering has been responding to from hunger relief agencies across the state,” said Irene Gallegos, hunger and care director for the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission.

“In recent visits to Hunger Offering-supported ministries in Decatur, Edinburg, Palestine and Abilene, the loud echo among ministry leaders was that food supplies at regional food banks were tight and that new faces were having access to food resources.

“I hear hunger relief heroes across the state reporting that the face of poverty is changing and working families simply aren't earning enough to cover basic household expenses.”

She pointed to several ministries that receive funding from the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering campaign – notably the Azle Community Caring Center, Heart of the City in Lewisville and Brother Bill's Helping Hands in Dallas – which serve more than 800 families each week.

“Another Hunger Offering-supported facility – the Mustard Seed Café in El Paso – used to serve an average of 50 meals a day and has now served 400 to 500 meals a day due to space constraints,” Gallegos said.

The agency has entered into a strategic partnership with ministries in some South Texas counties where food insecurity rates are particularly high, such as Cameron County at 21.9 percent and Hidalgo County at 22.9 percent, she added.

The fight against hunger is an “essential element” of faith

Christians should take a leading role in meeting needs and combating hunger, Everett insisted.

“I think we don’t always realize that hunger relief is an essential part of our faith as Christians,” he said.

Too often, Christians view it as an optional “extra activity” rather than a central part of their faith, he claimed.

“We should look at hunger as a litmus test because it is a symptom of other broken systems,” Everett said.

Christians can advocate for policy initiatives that address hunger and poverty, he said, noting in particular that Congress must pass a bipartisan farm bill that strengthens SNAP and international food assistance programs.

Individual Christians could promote summer feeding programs in their communities and encourage local schools to participate in breakfast programs and after-school feeding programs, he added.

Churches can also play an important role locally by participating in coalitions of nonprofits, social services and businesses to create hunger-free communities.

To date, the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty has helped build coalitions for a hunger-free community in 27 Texas counties.

“This is significant, but we have 254 counties in Texas,” Everett said. “We still have a long way to go.”

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EDITOR’S NOTE – This story was written by Ken Camp and originally published in the Baptist Standard.