Hospice of East Texas workers line up boxes of pasta Wednesday at East Texas Food Bank in preparation to package and distribute them. (Ben Fenton/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

The Hospice of East Texas has teamed up with East Texas Food Bank to fill boxes for distribution to East Texas residents for the holidays.

“I think East Texas Food Bank is such a blessing to our community, and they do so many wonderful things,” Hospice consultant Suzanne Henson said. “And it’s a nonprofit organization, and we just thought since we’re nonprofit that it would be good to help another nonprofit for the Tyler community and East Texas community.”

Henson said the vision and goals of Hospice of East Texas and East Texas Food Bank are similar — to serve the residents of East Texas. East Texas Food Bank didn’t have a spokesperson available, but one ETFB employee echoed Henson’s message that it was always nice to work with other nonprofits.

Hospice of East Texas says it’s the only nonprofit hospice in East Texas. Hospice consultant John Lehenbauer gave some insight into the organization.

“We take care of families wherever they are. We take care of all family members, from birth to the elderly,” Lehenbauer said. “Even if someone was just born, and they needed hospice, we would take care of them. A lot of people don’t realize that; they think that hospice is mainly for the elderly. We take care of children, too. We’re the only Hospice in East Texas that takes care of children between Dallas and Shreveport.”

At the end of the night Wednesday, Hospice of East Texas had filled 100 boxes of food and placed them on pallets, ready to ship out.

“We’re very blessed to team up with the East Texas Food Bank, and to feed people in the East Texas community,” Henson said. “We had a lot of fun, and got a lot done!”