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Home | Fort Cavazos News | Fort Cavazos’ religious services, Central Texas Food Bank continue partnership to bolster food security for families at Great Place

Fort Cavazos’ religious services, Central Texas Food Bank continue partnership to bolster food security for families at Great Place

Col. Lakicia Stokes, Fort Cavazos garrison commander, poses with volunteering Soldiers at the drive-thru pantry event taking place at the Phantom Warrior Stadium. This is one of the first instances of a collaborative food drive taking place on a U.S. Army garrison as part of a community-wide effort to relieve budgeting strains felt by families on post from higher food costs. (U.S. Army photo by Shawn Davis, Fort Cavazos Public Affairs)

by Shawn Davis, Fort Cavazos Public Affairs.

FORT CAVAZOS, Texas – The Central Texas Food Bank and the Fort Cavazos Religious Support Office continued their strong partnership between the Great Place and its community by facilitating the third on-post drive-thru pantry event Aug. 1 at the Phantom Warrior Stadium parking lot here.

Soldiers participate in the third pilot drive-thru pantry event held at the Phantom Warrior Stadium. The pantry is a collaborative effort between the Fort Cavazos Religious Support Office and the Central Texas Food Bank to make fresh, healthy foods more accessible to families on the garrison. (U.S. Army photo by Shawn Davis, Fort Cavazos Public Affairs)

“Food insecurities are a priority,” said Chaplain (Capt.) Eugene Savarimuthu. “We provide good food … we make sure none of the product is expired, we make sure our volunteers check on a regular basis.”

The partnership has been put into action during the summer, starting June 6 with the first pilot event — feeding around 250 families, then over 400 on July 3 by providing fresh produce, meat and packaged goods. Savarimuthu states that his team planned to feed just over 500 families the Aug. 1 event, as cars were lined up in two lanes across the 500-yard-wide parking lot. This program is slated to be a recurring, officiated event for the garrison, starting with a grand opening Sept. 5.

Savarimuthu explained the process for the drive-thru pantry. It starts with driving into the parking lot, which volunteers will then guide drivers to the starting point for the line at the northern end of the lot. Drivers will then be asked to scan a QR code to check in, filling out basic information such as ages in the household, income, number of household members, address, phone number and dietary preferences. The information is then used to tailor prepacked boxes or bags of food to load into the participant’s trunk, which the participant then drives off with on average more than a hundred dollars’ worth of groceries.

Speaking from the Central Texas Food Bank’s perspective, Mandy O’Connell, community distribution manager, spoke on the importance of bringing high quality foods to families demurring the heightened costs of groceries in the Fort Cavazos community.

“We’ve been trying to get on (Fort Cavazos) for several years,” O’Connell said. “This is our third distribution (on post), we’re going to be doing it every month on the first Thursday … we budget for about 400 households. Each household could have one to six people in it. We do between 40 and 50 pounds of food per household.

Volunteering Soldiers as well as those from the Central Texas Food Bank load groceries into vehicles for people attending the Aug. 1 drive-thru food pantry at the Phantom Warrior Stadium. The event is slated to become a recurring, official event which takes place the first Thursday of each month to promote health and wellbeing to families on Fort Cavazos. (U.S. Army photo by Shawn Davis, Fort Cavazos Public Affairs)

“We try to do at least 50% fresh produce,” she continued. “(Today) we’ve got corn on the cob, eggplants — all those root vegetables, melons, grapes, … just tons of fresh produce. We’ll give them some protein — today we have pork, and then all these dried shelf-stable goods … so they get a nice mix, but we’re really trying to push the fresh produce so that people can get healthy food because that’s what’s most expensive. They’re all going to get easily a couple 100 dollars’ worth of food. It’s just amazing.”

The Central Texas Food Bank sources its goods from local donors such as H-E-B, Walmart, miscellaneous vendors and individual donors. O’Connell stated that this effort had a personal tie-in to her, her father having been a veteran.

“We want to make sure that our Soldiers are taken care of,” she said. “They’re doing a lot of hard work for us and their families who are supporting them, and right now, the economy is tough for everyone. The people who are defending us and protecting us — I want to make sure that they are taken care of so it’s really, really awesome for our organization to be here.

“From what I heard, we’re the first in the nation to actually get on a base and give food out,” O’Connell continued. We’re really proud of that and we’re just excited to get food to even just a small portion to the Soldiers and families on our (post).”

The Fort Cavazos garrison commander spoke to the fellowship aspect of the event.

“The Fresh Foods for Families Program fosters a spirit of unity by bringing together volunteers on Fort Cavazos and the surrounding communities to support a common cause,” said Col. Lakicia Stokes, Fort Cavazos Garrison commander. “This collaboration strengthens our bonds, showing how much we can accomplish when we work together to support our military families.

“I have had the privilege of meeting both recipients and volunteers during these events, and the gratitude expressed by families is truly heartwarming,” Stokes continued. “One memorable interaction was with a young Soldier who shared how the program relieved some stress for his family, allowing them to focus on other aspects of their lives.”

The Central Texas Food Bank and Fort Cavazos will celebrate the officiation of the drive-thru pantry on post Sept. 5, and continue on every first Thursday of each month. The pantry is open to everyone with access to the post. To learn more about the Central Texas Food Bank, visit www.centraltexasfoodbank.org.

Volunteering Soldiers and members of the Central Texas Food Bank package assorted goods including fresh produce, prepackaged foods and beverages to give to families attending the drive-thru pantry event at the Phantom Warrior Stadium parking lot. The collaborative effort between Fort Cavazos and its community aims to curb food insecurity for families on post to promote health and wellbeing for Soldiers and their families. (U.S. Army photo by Shawn Davis, Fort Cavazos Public Affairs)
Cars drive into the drive-thru food pantry event Aug. 1 held at the Phantom Warrior Stadium on Fort Cavazos. Families fill out basic information forms at the start of the line before receiving tailored, prepacked groceries in the trunk of their vehicles as part of the community-wide effort to curb food insecurity across the Great Place. (U.S. Army photo by Shawn Davis, Fort Cavazos Public Affairs)