Children Eating Garbage

San Antonio pastor, Dan Trevino, was surprised to find two boys in his church's dumpster. He had arrived at the church at dawn one Saturday to prepare breakfast for his men's group. The two boy's had sneaked out of their home before their parents awoke in search of something to eat. They were hungry and had no food in their home. Pastor Dan brought them inside to enjoy a hot and wholesome breakfast.

Children who live in poverty are able to get free breakfast and lunch at school but are on their own for the weekend. For many, these school meals are the only nutritious meals they are sure to receive. Some will go hungry over the weekend.

Baptist Temple's backpack program provides nutritious snacks to children at risk to be hungry over the weekend. Children identified selected by school staff, discreetly receive the snacks every Friday.

During the summer, we provide free lunch to children in our community, a large percentage of whom are on the free or reduced lunch program in their schools.

Texas is the second hungriest state in the US. One out of six people in San Antonio struggle to afford food.

Last year, Baptist Temple distributed more than 200,000 pounds of food; providing groceries to over 200 families per month in partnership with the San Antonio Food Bank, the San Antonio Baptist Association and the Texas Hunger Offering.

Baptist Temple works with the Texas Hunger Initiative to seek a long-term solution to food insecurity in San Antonio.

Your contributions help Baptist Temple continue to fight hunger in our community.

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Texas Hunger Initiative opens regional office at Baptist Temple

Adela Flores (L) and Sara Marple (R) of Baylor School of
Social Work's Texas Hunger Initiative in San Antonio.

Texas is the nation's second hungriest state. The Texas Hunger Initiative (THI) seeks to make Texas food secure by 2015. Feed security simply means having access to three nutritious meals a day. In Texas 18.5 percent of households do not have reliable access to three meals a day, compared with 14.7 percent of U.S. households

THI was started in 2009 by the Baylor School of Social Work and the Christian Life Commission and was recently awarded a $3.5 million contract to accomplish their goal. This funding has enabled them to open 12 regional offices (including the one at Baptist Temple).

Adela Flores is the San Antonio Regional Director and is a graduate of University of Texas with a Master of Public Health Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. Also on the team is Sara Marple, a recent graduate of Texas Christian University and a Americorps VISTA volunteer. Sara is the Food Planning Association Coordinator for San Antonio. Two other team members will soon be identified.

We welcome THI to the family of churches and non-profits working at Baptist Temple to show God's love in tangible ways to our community and the world.