New East Texas Food Bank Tyler Resource Center to serve hundreds of families per week

Published 5:40 am Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Kim Morris, East Texas Food Bank Chief Impact Officer, holds a boxed milk, one of many food options available at the Tyler pantry. (Raquel Villatoro/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

The new East Texas Food Bank Tyler Resource Center will open next Tuesday.

The East Texas Food Bank has worked for about two years to plan and open the Tyler resource center, according to ETFB Chief Impact Officer Kim Morris.



The resource center is located at their distribution location, 3201 Robertson Rd. in Tyler, where they have a stocked pantry with fresh produce, frozen meat, canned beans, vegetables and tuna.

This is the third resource center the ETFB has opened and the first to be located in Tyler. The Tyler resource center was needed because 34% of the neighborhood population near the center lives below the poverty line, according to ETFB CEO David Emerson. It is also located near a bus line.

“It’s a high need area,” Emerson said. “That’s where we wanted to focus on what we were doing. We anticipate that we will serve 756,000 meals.”

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In addition, the food bank will have space for local partners to come in and offer services such as medical screenings and rental assistance. The center will be open after hours and on Saturdays so people who work the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. can come in and get food.

“Food insecurity is a symptom of poverty,” ETFB Chief Impact Officer Kim Morris said. “It’s a symptom of low income. It’s a symptom of other problems. So being able to give folks food helps solve for that symptom, but it doesn’t fix the root cause issue. The idea of the resource center is to be able to offer services that might get to that root cause.”

For those that cannot make it to the Tyler resource center when in need, proxy boxes are available. After coming in and getting on their system, clients can designate someone they know to pick up a box of food for them, according to Morris.

The resource center plans to serve 500 to 750 families per week, according to Morris. It will also offer cooking demonstrations to help families make healthy and nutritious meals, Emerson said.

The center’s goal is to provide at least 50% fresh produce. Some of their produce comes from donations, others from grocery stores, like Walmart, which will send them less than perfect yet safe to eat produce.

They encourage families to take as much as they need, Morris said.

“They become a community in and of themselves,” Morris said, reflecting on watching families pick food at the ETFB’s Lufkin resource center. “They help each other, the kids get to go with Mom and point at the things that they like. This should not be a sad place. It should be a happy place. It should be a place where people are communicating with one another.”

The pantry will be open starting next Tuesday, Dec. 19. The schedule will be Tuesday through Friday from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. and 4 to 6:30 p.m.. On Saturday it will be open 8:30 to 11:30 a.m.

Morris encourages people to volunteer. They have three full-time staff for the Tyler branch and will need more hands to help out.

“This is a great opportunity for families with teens and pre-teens to come in and restock shelves, restock produce, to guide folks through the process,” Morris said. “We want to be a part of the community, we want the community to adopt it, love it and help us make it successful.”