Established in 1982 by Jo Curtis, Ambassador Kathryn Hall, Lorraine Griffin Kircher and Liz Minyard, the North Texas Food Bank (“NTFB”) addresses the critical issue of hunger by providing food-insecure North Texans with edible surplus food and grocery items otherwise destined for landfills.
Today, NTFB leads the fight against hunger by distributing donated, purchased and prepared food to 439,000 unduplicated individuals annually through a network of more than 200 Partner Agencies and 1,000 feeding sites in 13 North Texas counties, including: Collin, Dallas, Delta, Denton, Ellis, Fannin, Grayson, Hopkins, Hunt, Kaufman, Lamar, Navarro and Rockwall. 61% of NTFB clients are minority, 82% of client households earn less than $20,000 annually and a staggering 83.4% of NTFB clients are food insecure – meaning they would otherwise have no alternative source of food. Furthermore, food insecurity affects the elderly to a disproportionate degree, given their fixed incomes and higher medical costs, in fact, every month 31.5% of NTFB clients must make a choice between food and medical care. Established in 1982 by Jo Curtis, Ambassador Kathryn Hall, Lorraine Griffin Kircher and Liz Minyard, the North Texas Food Bank addresses the critical issue of hunger by providing food-insecure North Texans with edible surplus food and grocery items otherwise destined for landfills.
Hunger continues to be a growing problem across the United States, and North Texas is no different. Based on Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap 2014 report, the estimated current annual need in North Texas is approximately 92 million nutritious meals. Since recently completing a three-year strategic plan, ReThink Hunger, NTFB is operating at maximum capacity with its current facilities and unable to meet the remaining need for an additional 30 million nutritious meals annually.
According to Feeding America, one in six people in NTFB’s 13-county service area (856,060 total) is at risk for hunger and hunger-related health issues, and the number of food-insecure individuals continues to rise. The populations most affected are families living below the poverty line, the working poor, seniors on a fixed income, adults with disabilities and children.
As part of its $55 million Stop Hunger Build Hope Capital Campaign, NTFB developed a plan for a new Northern Distribution Center in Collin County. The proposed 200,000 square foot facility is expected to house 60,000 square feet of dry warehouse space, 70,000 square feet of refrigerated warehouse space, 12,000 square feet of office space, seven refrigerated docks, 11 dry docks, a Community Garden, and a 28,000 square foot volunteer center with the capacity to accommodate up to 400 volunteers per day.
In September, 2017, Crescent Growth Capital facilitated a $24M NMTC financing to help fund the $27.4M construction cost of the new Northern Distribution Center, using allocation provided by Texas Mezzanine Fund and Pacesetter, with a NMTC investment provided by US Bank. The approximately $4.4M in net NMTC subsidy directly reduced the amount of capital campaign funds required to complete this particular project, as well as affording the non-profit some flexibility for the other Stop Hunger Build Hope Capital Campaign projects.
