SAN ANTONIO — Students are back to eating breakfast and lunch at school, and San Antonio Food Bank President and CEO Eric Cooper calls that “a blessing."
“Many know the busiest time of the year for us is the summer,” Cooper said.
And this past summer seemed never-ending at times for the SAFB team.
“With the pandemic, kids have been out of school for over a year and a half, and that demand has been unprecedented,” Cooper said.
At the height of the pandemic, the San Antonio Food Bank served more people than ever before. In fact, the need doubled.
“We went from feeding 60,000 people a week to 120,000,” Cooper said.
He said the line shortens when students return to school.
“It's at school that those nourishing meals occur,” Cooper said. “Now, we're at 90,000 people a week. It's not back to what it was. It's improving.”
He’s cautiously optimistic. While their current situation has improved, anything can happen in the future.
“The state of the food bank at the moment is that the need has decreased a little,” Cooper said. “Our food supply is fairly stable and we're watching what's happening with the delta variant.”
For that reason, Cooper said they can’t slow down. They still need donations and volunteers who can help their mission.
“I worry about kids at school,” he said. “And if there is a pivot in our future, if kids are moved to distance learning, I fear that our demand will go up.”
He also says he understands many families will still rely on their support as the economy slowly recovers.
“We pray that the economy continues to strengthen and move more people back to work, which will enable our line to shrink,” Cooper said. “At the end of the day, getting back to normal isn't good enough for us. Feeding 60,000 people a week shouldn't happen. We as a community need to be doing more for our employees with livable wages, with sick leave, with all of those things that we learned in the pandemic were critical to keep people moving, keep them stable, keep them sustainable.”
If you’re interested in volunteering or would like to make a donation to the San Antonio Food Bank, click here.