AUSTIN (KXAN) – A program meant to provide nutritious food options to central Texas families that might not find them otherwise is expanding.
The Central Texas Food Bank put a new 18-wheeler into action at the beginning of June as part of their mobile food pantry program.
Mark Johnson, the food bank’s chief development officer, said they’ve been loading up trucks and hauling food to several counties for a few years; the new tractor-trailer represents their third mobile food pantry.
The truck is able to carry up about 36,000 pounds of food. Tuesday, workers loaded it up with canned vegetables, rice, raisins, and other supplies they gather at their warehouse in southeast Austin.
The mobile pantries serve eight sites in five counties, Johnson said, including Travis, Hays, Williamson, Coryell and Milam counties. The program is meant to serve people who might not have easy access to high-quality, nutritious foods on a daily basis.
But it’s not just for rural areas, Johnson said.
“Even here in Travis County,” he said, “east Austin, the need is so great that we set up mobile sites right here in the city of Austin.”
For instance, the new truck was set Tuesday to head to a church in the east part of the city to distribute food.
Johnson anticipates the need for more mobile food pantries, which run six days a week, in the coming years to keep serving needs throughout the central Texas region.