Michael Polydoroff, marketing and communications director for Tarrant Area Food Bank, made no effort to hide his enthusiasm as he joined branch manager Steve Martin and regional engagement coordinator Lauren Burge to conduct a walking tour of Tarrant Area Food Bank West. The facility, on the south side of I-20 seven miles west of Weatherford, is in the heart of Tri-County Electric Cooperative's original service area.
The Food Bank, based in Fort Worth, celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2022. It serves about a million meals a week through a network of more than 330 pantries and food distribution programs in 13 counties. But like any great organization, it is constantly striving to get better.
Two years ago, that quest drew them westward.
"During the pandemic, when we were looking at the need, we narrowed it down to the rural areas," said Martin. "We were doing a really good job of taking care of everyone in the Tarrant area, but we were not doing a good job taking care of everyone in Parker County and the surrounding counties."
TAFB West opened in November 2021. It delivers food to about 250 families a week on-site, and supplies more than 70 churches, food pantries and senior centers that feed the hungry in Bosque, Erath, Hamilton, Hood, Parker, Palo Pinto, and Somervell counties. At the core of that service is the mission: "Empowering our communities to alleviate hunger by providing food, education, and resources."
The 28,00-square-foot West warehouse has offices, and upstairs boardroom that is available to the public, a kitchen, meeting rooms and elbow room for plenty of volunteers. There are thousands of feet of shelves for canned and packaged goods, a shipping dock, a "market" and a garden. An 8,000-square-foot walk-in cooler is kept at 36 degrees, and a 4,000-square-foot freezer maintains a bone-chilling 2 degrees below zero.
"Our service area is about the size of Rhode Island," Martin said.
The West facility gets food from the main warehouse in Fort Worth and distributes more than a half-million pounds each month. Nothing stays on the shelves for more than 30 days.
Numbers are impressive, but the Food Bank's focus is on people - those they serve, those who support them, and those who volunteer.
TAFBs network of corporate partners reads like the Fortune 500 - Lockheed-Martin, ExxonMobil, XTO, Amazon, Walmart, H-E-B, Kroger, and other grocers, Texas Health Resources, Baylor Scott & White, JPS Health System and other hospitals. Many of those companies' employees volunteer, and thousands of individual donors also support the mission.
That mission includes constantly seeking new ways to serve. Recently, TAFB West partnered with the Parker County Hospital District to put food on every ambulance.
"They were telling us that sometimes they go to people's houses, and the people have absolutely nothing," Martin said. "Now, they can give them a box of food and some information."
Connecting those folks with resources can lead to better health, Burge said.
Most food bank clients are not homeless and destitute. More often, they are low-wage earners and their families, senior citizens living on fixed incomes, victims of family disabled, the under-employed and the temporarily and long-term employed. More than one-third are children.
"If you have to make choices between paying your utility bill and buying food, getting medical care or paying the rent, we try to take that burden away," Polydoroff said.
A key feature of the TAFB West is Mission Market, where people can come and shop.
"They can get as much as they want except for the protein and eggs - we have to limit those," Martin said. "We have a system so they can get online and order, and we'll pull the order. They can let us know what time they want to pick up and we'll just put it in their car."
Polydoroff noted the quality of merchandise is high.
"There's some really gorgeous stuff here," he said. "We try and give people fresh, nutritious things they can use to make a meal. It's a dignified experience."
Last summer, Martin thought the number of people served would drop after a Thursday night mobile distribution in the parking lot had to be moved inside because volunteers were getting sick from the heat. Instead, the numbers went up.
"It was because of the shopping experience," he said. "They come in and choose what they want. It's not just a box of food that someone else put together."
"That's why I say this is the food bank of the future," Polydoroff added. "This model does not exist in other food banks."
TAFB West's spacious, modern kitchen is stocked with pots, pans, and other equipment donated by Weatherford restaurant owners John and Jenn Shepherd - but their involvement goes beyond that. The plan is for John to do live cooking presentations (think of "Iron Chef") where he grabs items from the Mission Market and prepares a healthy meal on a budget.
Captured on video, the program can be shown on television monitors in Mission Market.
The Food Bank also does "Cooking Matters" presentations in the kitchen, and takes them on the road to cancer centers, senior centers and assisted living facilities. They get a group together, buy $20 or $25 worth of food, and teach them how to cook a healthy meal.
"We'll either give them a gift certificate for $25 so they can go out and get the food for the recipe, or we'll have the stuff here and just hand them a bag and they can go home and prepare it," Martin said.
"It's a great program," Polydoroff added. "It's a brand in and of itself. We don't own it, but we have our own staff that runs it in high-need areas."
Another educational outreach is the "RED Bus" (Resources. Education Delivered.). The mobile food pantry delivers food while also providing resource assistance and nutrition education to communities with high levels of food insecurity. TAFB West's RED Bus is sponsored by H-E-B and the Parker County Hospital District. Two other vehicles worth out of Arlington and Fort Worth, targeting "food deserts" where grocery stores are scarce.
Partner agencies, nonprofit organizations hosting a special event, health fairs, nonprofit expos and back-to-school fairs are among those eligible for a visit from the RED Bus.
Another innovative feature of TAFB West is outside: a two-leveled garden facing I-20. Rock-lined raised beds are equipped with drip irrigation and tended by volunteers. During a December tour, cold-weather crops like kale, Swiss chard, romaine lettuce and artichokes were still thriving. In its first full season last year, it generated more than 800 pounds of produce.
Martin said they're aiming much higher this year.
"The garden is another food-bank-of-the-future concept," Polydoroff said. In 2021 alone, TAFB assisted in the establishment of 14 new community gardens in the Tarrant County area, and almost 40 percent of the food it distributes is a fresh fruit or vegetable.
One thing that doesn't change is need. Around 15 percent of the people in Tarrant, Parker and the surrounding counties face food insecurity every day. As long as unemployment, illness and natural disasters impact people in North Texas, Tarrant Area Food Bank will be there, working to lift the burden.
"What you put in your body makes you who you are," Martin said. "Food is health."