Help North Texas Students Provide 4500 Meals

Our North Texas neighbors need you!

Be the one to give one.

ABOUT OUR TEAM (HI, THERE!)

Hello! We are a group of students from the University of North Texas--Andre, Emma, Miyuki, Diana, Sasha, and Aubrey who either know someone or has personally experienced food insecurity.

When we found out that a startling 1 in 8 people in North Texas are food insecure and faces the uncertainty of not knowing where their next meal will come from, our small but mighty group decided to band together to see if we could do something about it.

ABOUT OUR MISSION (AND YES, WE HAVE A PLAN!)

It is our goal to raise $1,500 to feed 4,500 people within the North Texas community. How? And where do you come in? We're glad you asked!

Our research pointed us to a name we could trust: the North Texas Food Bank. We found out that for every $1 donated to the North Texas Food Bank, they are able to provide 3 nutritious meals to people in need. Not just food, but nutritious food. With that in mind, we set a goal to find 1500 people that would give a dollar. We thought, if we could do that, we could provide our neighbors with 4,500 meals.

Think about that. Four thousand five hundred nutritious meals. That's incredible! And attainable. We could do that. And so, we set out to to do just that, which is what brings us here to this point.

Give a dollar, tell 10 friends to give a dollar, and tell them to tell 10 friends to give a dollar. We can do this. You can do this. If you help us, together we can make sure that 4,500 people in our community don't go to bed hungry tonight.

ABOUT THE NORTH TEXAS FOOD BANK (CAN WE GET A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR THEM?)

At the North Texas Food Bank , their mission is simple yet profound: to ensure every child, senior, and family in our community has access to nutritious meals.

Since their founding in 1982 by four visionary women determined to end hunger in North Texas, they've remained steadfast in their commitment to this cause. Today, 95% of funds donated directly support their meal programs, allowing them to reach those who need it most.

ANDRE: WHY IT MATTERS (& WHY IT SHOULD MATTER TO YOU TOO)

According to Trisha Cunningham (2023), President and CEO, of North Texas Food Bank, "there is a misperception that the organization primarily feeds the homeless; in actuality they primarily feed the working poor."

When we think of food insecurity, meaning not having nutritious food readily available, we often fail to imagine our neighbors. In many cases we don’t realize that it is we ourselves that suffer from food insecurity. When our team decided to move forward with this project, I struggled to connect or even care much about feeding others. I grew up in a small country town, here in Texas and lived off the land. I grew up poor and my family benefited from Government assistance. I recall the embarrassment of buying food with food stamps. Trying to be discreet as I passed along what I called monopoly money. So many of our friends and family members suffer from food insecurity in silence. Many of them may lack awareness of organizations such as North Texas Food Bank. This organization is mainly a logistics operation that works with partner agencies such as Brother Bills for distribution. In fact 80% of the distribution is through partner agencies. (Cunningham, 2023) The rest is distributed directly from North Texas Food Bank, to senior and children’s programs as well as their mobile pantry. (Cunningham, 2023)

When we think of our why, let’s think of ourselves and our neighbors. Let’s educate the community on the subject and how their contributions will make an impact on the neighbors that suffer from food insecurities behind closed doors.

Reference

Cummings, (2023) YouTube, How the Food Bank Works, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRP-U_ZOZo

For more information and to join them in their fight against hunger, visit ntfb.org.

MEET SASHA: GROWING UP WITH FOOD INSECURITY

Hi, I am writing this on behalf of my group of students at the University of North Texas. We are raising money for a nonprofit of our choosing for our Civic Engagement class. We selected The North Texas Food Bank to address food insecurity. In our course, we learned the severity of food insecurity and how it affects many more people than one might assume. This exists at an even higher rate in the state of Texas than on average around the country.

I opted to write this story because I know intimately what it is like to depend on food banks to not be hungry. As a child I was all too familiar with the idea that we might not have enough food to eat. I was fortunate that I had teachers who saw the need and helped where they could, but had it not been for organizations like this food bank I would have gone to bed hungry many more nights than I did. It affects self-esteem, one’s relationship to food, and on a very practical level the health of someone dealing with food insecurity. For many who never have to think about being without food they do not think about the fact that this issue exists, and it is much closer to home than many people realize.

Our intention is to bring to the attention of our North Texas community just how important our cause is--and how urgent. All the funding we raise will go directly to the North Texas Food Bank to support the amazing work they are already doing there.

MEET LULA

Our neighbors are facing tough times due to high living costs, putting them at risk of going hungry. People like Lula, a cancer patient from North Texas, desperately need your help. Your donation will ensure that Lula can focus on getting better without worrying about where her next meal will come from.

WHERE YOUR DONATION WILL GO

The funds raised through our fundraiser will be donated 100% to the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB). As a vital part of our local community, the NTFB relies on the support of individuals, businesses, and organizations like yours to continue its mission of combating hunger. As students at the University of North Texas, we are engaged in service learning as part of our civil engagement studies. As part of this effort, we support NTFB. Therefore, all donations to us directly benefit NTFB.

Your contribution will be used alongside these activities to combat hunger in our community. The volunteer staff at the food bank works tirelessly to handle tasks such as transportation, storage organization, community outreach, and administrative expenses, ensuring a well-stocked inventory for those in need.

In the United States, 36 million people face food insecurity, with Texas particularly affected as ranking second in the nation with 1 in 6 families experiencing food insecurity (USDA 2022).

NTFB has previously received the Highest Honor Roll for Excellence in advocacy, indicating its commitment to closing the hunger gap at various levels of government and supporting many programs. 95% of the resources donated to NTFB directly support programs providing food to these groups.

Last year (2023), NTFB provided access to 144 million meals to those in need in their 13-county service area through programs such as Child Hunger, Senior Programs, Nutrition Services, Garden Programs, Disaster Relief, Distribute Food, College Hunger, and Food Assistance. Your donation will help address hunger across all age groups and support initiatives like Greenway, learning gardens, and sustainable small-scale gardens like Jan’s garden in the Green program.

Your online payment is secure, and all your personal information will be kept confidential. NTFB is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and makes all your donations tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

HELP US MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Join us, a group of students from the University of North Texas, in our mission to support the North Texas Food Bank in feeding our neighbors, and together, let's turn compassion into action, let's turn dollars into meals.

One dollar provides three meals for our North Texas community. Be the ONE to give ONE.

Image credit: All images are property of the North Texas Food Bank