Downtown Food Pantry has a new custom-built freezer thanks to funding from the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB).
The 300 square foot unit allows the pantry to receive and temporarily store more frozen food available to distribute to the 700 families who visit each week.
“We’re thrilled to now have more frozen storage space to help us provide more quality, healthy food to those who visit us,” said executive director Allan Hubbard. “It would not have been possible without our partnership with the NTFB.”
NTFB is a top-ranked non-profit hunger-relief organization that sources, packages and distributes food through a network of more than 400 Partner Agencies and organizations across 13 North Texas counties. Downtown Food Pantry is among the five largest of those agencies.
The $85,314 freezer was built by winning bidder Almcoe Refrigeration of Dallas. Electrical service was by Crawford Electric of Paris.
Part of the funding in the capacity building grant included an award from the Texas Department of Agriculture as part of the Fiscal Recovery Fund of the coronavirus American Rescue Plan of 2021. Remaining funds were from the NTFB.
“NTFB is grateful for the work the Downtown Food Pantry does in helping us advance our mission to provide healthy food to the people in Lamar County,” said Kim Morris, Director of Community Partner Relations with the NTFB. “Today, in Lamar County, there are 9,000 neighbors facing hunger – people who lack regular access to enough food for an active, healthy life. Of that number, more than 3,000 are children, giving Lamar County a child food insecurity rate of 29.9 percent. Through our Feeding Network with partners like Downtown Food Pantry, last year we provided 1.6 million nutritious meals.”
The only qualification to receive free groceries from the pantry is that a family reside in Lamar County. Food is distributed Tuesdays 1:30-4:30 p.m. and Thursdays 8:30-11:30 a.m. at 124 W. Cherry St. in Paris.
