By MyKala Guerrero
Cove Leader-Press
Last Thursday morning, the Central Texas Food Bank’s mobile food pantry met in the parking of Holy Family Catholic Church to serve the community in the fight against food insecurity and hunger.
A total of 171 households received meals from the distribution that day.
Up to 200 households are commonly served every 2nd Thursday of the month when the food bank’s mobile pantry rolls into town.
Cars begin lining up as early as 4 a.m., with the bulk arriving before 8 a.m. to line up in the parking lot at 1001 Georgetown Rd. in Copperas Cove for the event.
Parishioner and Secretary of Holy Family Catholic Church, Hector Flores was there to aid with the food distribution. He also serves through My Brother’s House, a food pantry run by the church.
“I moved back here in 2012, and this community has been very generous,” stated Flores. “We do this with the pantries. Coach Buckram heads up the Peanut Butter Bowl at Copperas Cove High School, and this last year we got 56 of those big trash cans full of peanut butter split between us and (Baptist Benevolence Ministry),” said Flores. “I’m just now getting to the point where I’m starting to run out. I’ll run out soon, probably another month, but we’ll have another Peanut Butter Bowl at the end of August.” said Flores.
Flores suggests that dry food and canned goods continue to be the best food items to donate to different organizations.
“I know a lot of things have best buy dates on them, but anything that’s going to be good for probably a couple of years: canned goods, dry goods, pasta, anything like that. Top ramen is even good.” he added.
As for the produce that goes to each family, Flores recognized many of the local chain stores in the community that meet the need.
“HEB helps, Walmart helps, 4 Dollar Generals help, some of the other Dollar Generals help the other pantries and Starbucks helps us, (daily) gives us donations so that all that goes to the box and we hand out the box.” he said.
Since 1982, Central Texas Food Bank has offered food assistance to Texans. They made their first mobile food distributions in 2017, including Copperas Cove.
The CTFB works with over 300 different agencies across 21 different counties, and multiple local churches in our city and the surrounding towns are included in the makeup of those partnering agencies, with Holy Family Catholic Church being an avid help.
One volunteer shared his experience helping disperse food to fellow Covites at the food bank’s most recent mobile food pantry distribution.
Connor Sabala has lived in Copperas Cove for most of his life and has been volunteering with the food bank for the past six months.
Sabala described that finding himself with free time led him to make the decision to serve the community.
“I had nothing better to do. It takes two to three 3 hours, and it makes someone’s day. Why not help?” he said.
Sabala chose to dedicate his time to the food pantry in particular due to the hardship he has seen his own family face.
“I have family members who are older, have medical (issues) and, just with the times being so hard right now, I can’t do much to help out. But if me giving my three or four can help someone out, why not?” he reiterated.
Sabala described the process of becoming a volunteer as being very easy to navigate.
“I just walked up for the first time, everyone had smiles and friendly faces, and they just told me what to do. I’ve been coming here since. Look it up, don’t be afraid.” he suggested to would-be volunteers. “A lot of the time the thought of the process or the action is harder than the actual action itself.”
Other food assistance programs in Copperas Cove as listed on the CTFB website include My Brother’s House which operates Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon at 107 Lyons Street.
The Refuge Mobile Food Pantry lists service hours as 9-11 a.m. every 3rd Saturday of the month.
The Five Loaves and 2 Fish Outreach Ministry operated through 5 Hills Assembly of God has two programs that provide for the community with the food pantry open Mondays from 9:30-10:30 a.m. and the soup kitchen open every 2nd and 4th Saturday from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. at 302 East Avenue D.
Baptist Benevolence Ministry operates Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. until noon at 300 West Avenue B.
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