Church Sends 500,000 Pounds of Food to DFW to Fill Shortages

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Video by Colton Woolford: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provides food to local food bank a semi-truck full of food from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints delivered a much-needed supply of food to Community Link food bank in Saginaw TX. #sharegoodness#justserve

Dallas, Texas— North Texas scrambles to fill food bank shortages in wake of the pandemic, trucks from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rush to help fill the void, with two more having arrived in the area last week.

The Church of Jesus Christ has sent approximately 13 semi food trucks, or 500,000 pounds of food, to the DFW area to fill shortages at nonprofits and food pantries. Two food trucks arrived last Wednesday in Saginaw’s Community Link food pantry and The Salvation Army in Lewisville and Allen.

“The truckload we got in today from the Church, we were jumping up and down looking at the items that we sometimes just cannot get. Some supplies, like vegetables or peanut butter, have been hard to get in this pandemic,” said Karen Fuller, executive director of Saginaw’s Community Link.

Saginaw’s food pantry gave out 2.6 million pound of food in 2020. The donation from the Church Wednesday had about 40,000 pounds of food that will last about two weeks. Volunteers from the Church locally came to help unload the truck.

“It’s amazing the need in this area. COVID has done nothing but accentuate that need with the loss of jobs and hopelessness we see on a daily basis,” Fuller said.

Rick Petty, Fort Worth North Stake communications director for the Church, said “The pressure on food pantries is great in COVID. We are just happy the Church could step in and help fulfill a need.”

“The demand in this area has doubled this past year,” Allen Community Outreach Food director, Geoben Johnsen explains. 

In the middle of the Allen Community Outreach warehouse, 20,711 pounds of food from the Church now sit waiting to be distributed to the people of Allen and surrounding communities.

“A delivery like this makes a huge difference,” Johnsen said. “With what we have here, we can give out over 17,000 meals to people in our community. This will really help a lot of people!”

Additional donations from The Church of Jesus Christ are scheduled for DFW in 2021 to meet growing food insecurity.

The North Texas Food Bank and its more than 200 partners estimate they will lose 22 millions pounds of food in 2021 due to increased demand and shortage in government programs, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Trucks from the Church’s own transportation system, Deseret Transportation, are crisscrossing the country, hauling tens of millions of pounds of food to local food pantries from headquarters in Salt Lake City. The Church runs farms and food production centers to feed the hungry or respond to crisis around the world.

The donations include a mix of canned goods and boxed foods, including fruits, vegetables, chili and peanut butter.

Food donations are part of the church’s mission to follow the Savior by feeding the hungry.

The church has approved over 110 Covid-19 relief projects in 57 countries.