TACAA : Food Provision

Food Provision

Commodity Distribution

• American Commodity Distribution Association strives to strengthen USDA’s Commodity Food Program by providing food to specific programs, centers and populations. Legislative information and news regarding commodity distribution also provided.

Community Gardens

Statewide

• American Community Gardening Association is a national nonprofit membership organization of professionals, volunteers, and supporters of community greening in urban and rural communities. The Association supports community gardening through facilitating the formation and expansion of state and regional community gardening networks; developing resources in support of community gardening; encouraging research and conducting educational programs.

• National Gardening is focused primarily on children and the ways that gardening enhances education and helps build environmentally responsible adults. Primary efforts include the website Kids Gardening, a place where teachers, parents, and community organizers can find gardening resources; GrowLab: Activities For Growing Minds, a curriculum utilized in classrooms across the country to help students learn about science and the environment; Gardening With Kids catalog; and Youth Garden Grants.

Local

• Austin: South Austin Community Gardens, Sunshine Gardens, Sustainable Food Center, Coppell: Coppell Community Gardens

• Dallas: Gardeners in Community Development

• Houston: Urban Harvest

Farmers Markets

• The Texas Department of Agriculture provides links to certified farmer’s markets in Texas.

• Texas Farmers Markets lists Farmer’s Markets in Texas and throughout the United States.

• Local Harvest makes it easy to find family farms, farmers markets and other sources of food grown in your area.

• National Association of Farmers’ Market Nutrition Programs is a national advocate for the FMNP, voicing the concerns of farmers and WIC participants in meetings, hearings, conferences, and other forums. Internet site provides links to legislation activities affecting farmers’ markets currently under consideration in Congress, development resources and association information.

Food Banks

• Feeding America is the nation’s largest domestic hunger relief organization; it’s a network of over 200 food banks and food-rescue programs. The site provides program information on community kitchens, disaster relief, fresh food initiative, and more, plus nutrition publications and policy information.

• Texas Food Bank Network works to be a single voice uniting all food banks in Texas, fostering and facilitating cooperation between food banks and state government.

Texas Food Bank Network Food Banks:

Abilene – Food Bank of West Central Texas

Amarillo – High Plains Food Bank

Austin – Capital Area Food Bank

Beaumont – Southeast Texas Food Bank

Bryan – Brazos Valley Food Bank

Conroe – Montgomery County Food Bank

Corpus Christi – Food Bank Corpus Christi

Dallas – North Texas Food Bank

Fort Worth – Tarrant Area Food Bank

Houston – Houston Food Bank

Laredo – South Texas Food Bank

Lubbock – South Plains Food Bank

McAllen – Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley, Inc.

Odessa – West Texas Food Bank

San Angelo – Concho Valley Regional Food Bank

San Antonio – San Antonio Food Bank

Texas City – Galveston County Food Bank

Tyler – East Texas Food Bank

Victoria – Food Bank of the Golden Crescent

Wichita Falls – Wichita Falls Area Food Bank

Food Recovery

• Society of St. Andrew is an ecumenical Christian ministry that saves fresh produce that would otherwise go to waste and gives it to the needy.

• The Gleaning Network of Texas gleans produce year round and operates across much of the state (Tyler, Fort Worth, and the Panhandle area).