Fort Worth Families Line Up for Boxes of Food

Fort Worth, Texas – North Texas is well into the fifth month of the coronavirus pandemic, and with people still out of work, getting food on the table remains a major worry.

The work of fighting hunger in Fort Worth means getting good into neighborhoods that need it most.

“The response has been huge. The safety and security team just told us traffic is wrapped around the block,” said Noah Drew as he watched families in south Fort Worth drive up to get free boxes of food.

Drew works for the University of North Texas Health Science Center and was there overseeing the food distribution under the center’s FitWorth program. FitWorth started distributing up to 1,500 boxes of food a week to food-insecure families weekly starting July 10.

NBC 5 watched as car after car rolled up with trunks open to receive the free help. Boxes are packed with butter, eggs, carrots, potatoes. Families also get gallons of milk.

“Each box is designed to serve four people. So, all totaled, we’re serving close to 5,000 individuals today,” Drew said.

Fort Worth ISD is working with the FitWorth program to identify schools as donation sites, focusing on areas with the greatest needs and areas in food deserts. The location of the donation will change each week until the program ends on September 4th.

“To see this extend into later summer and now moving into early fall is not surprising given the disruption that we’ve had to our economy. we’re happy to be able to meet the need but it’s still staggering to see that folks are coming out and making themselves available to donations like this,” Drew said.

The program expects to supply about 54,000 family members through United States Department of Agriculture’s Farmers to Families Food Box Program. Tulsa-based produce company GoFresh is also a partner.

“We hope this program will alleviate some of the worries food-insecure families are experiencing during this pandemic and during hard economic times,” Drew said.