How the San Antonio Food Bank Serves 100,000 Households Per Week (Eric Cooper)

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Feeding a 105,000 people every week is no small feat. But for Eric Cooper, CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank, it's about more than just meals. It's about solving hunger at its roots. Hunger really is a policy choice. If our community can gain the conscience and have the compassion, we could see a day when hunger doesn't exist. I'm Corey Ames, and this is Ensemble Texas. In this episode, we're pulling back the curtain on the incredible work of the San Antonio Food Bank, how they address hunger today while creating solutions for tomorrow.

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Eric shares the strategies that make this possible from food rescue to workforce development and even the ways food can heal more than just empty stomachs. Food is magical. Right? It has this power to bring people to the table.

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It's culture. It's tradition. It's the holidays.

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It's the first date, it's love, it's everything. There's more to this story than just logistics. We're talking about why most people in those food lines are working families. Moms who are employed but underpaid, making tough choices like whether to pay for groceries or pay for rent. Most of who we provide food to are housed, versus the homeless. Stick around to hear why Eric believes hunger is ultimately solvable and how the San Antonio Food Bank's mission goes beyond putting food on the table for families today to building a resilient, thriving community for all. Well, Eric, I really appreciate you taking the time. And, I know it's a a lengthy career here at the food bank, and so things might look a bit different than when you started, but I'd love to to start perhaps there. Yeah. It's been over 20 years serving as the CEO of the food bank. I'm curious, does it feel like the same job that you're showing up to every day as you did back in the early 2000? Yeah. It's it's, great question. I mean, I think sometimes just for context, making sure people understand that the San Antonio Food Bank is not alone. We're a part of a national organization called Feeding America. There's 200 food banks across the US. Each food bank has a service territory.

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So ours is actually 29 counties, and all 254 counties is divided up, in the great state of Texas by food banks that regionally kinda serve those geographical areas. So in our local 29 counties, we have about 800 different partners that help us in the food distribution. Many of these are traditional nonprofits Cory churches or schools, but it's those pantries that an individual in a neighborhood might go to to actually pick up a food box or get a meal. It's our privilege to partner with that network. We also run our own programs, which sometimes are highlighted in the news and create a paradigm for how people think we work. But, boy, when I started, 23 years ago here at the San Antonio Food Bank, we were much smaller. In some ways, size is not a sign of success.

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Right? It's just a demonstration of the need and our passionate, attempt to urgently address the food insecurity that is grown as our city has grown. And, today, you know, we're a large nonprofit that is committed to high integrity and how we operate the business, to be extremely efficient in how we steward what's donated to us and then leveraging the biggest impact.

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And and we deliver impact in this cool way because food is magical. Right? Mhmm. It it it has this power to bring people to the table. It's culture.

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It's it's it's tradition. It's the holidays. It's it's the first date. It's love. It's it's everything.

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And so bringing the magic of food in a in such a dynamic way allows us not just to address hunger, but, other insecurities that a household might have that we try to make secure.

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Excited to have this conversation. Well, maybe along those lines as as to things that, maybe our our greater San Antonio community might not be aware of. What do you feel like is maybe most misunderstood about how the food bank operates generally Cory just perhaps left out of the greater narrative, in San Antonio and beyond? Yeah. So we feed on a weekly basis about a 105,000 people. Easier said than done. I mean, think about a 105,000 people coming for dinner. It takes a lot of food to meet that need. We try to align the right foods and the right amount at the right time. But I think the misconception sometimes is who's in that line. So often people think that the food bank really just serves, the housing insecure, the homeless. Right? Like, they they must be homeless to get food from the food bank. Most of who we provide food to are housed, versus the homeless. You know, people are surprised to learn that hunger is very biased to females. It tends to slant to Hispanics. So she's a Latina. She's employed, which, again, most people would assume those that access our food are unemployed, but more often, they're underemployed, and she's a parent. She's got kids. So you think of this Latina who's, got kids, who's working, but just not making enough to make ends meet, and that's where she's gonna lean on the food bank. I use the phrase rent eats first in every household budget. It just eats up everything and there's nothing left over for food. And when you think about the high cost of rent combined with utility bills that can be incredibly burdensome along with any transportation expenses to get to and from work, there just isn't enough money and that mom is making the decision do I pay this bill or do I buy food?

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And we would encourage her to come here to get food and to get programming that might be able to then bring some stability to the household. Ultimately, we would prefer that her income increase. Right?

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And therefore, her need for coming here is lessened. I can't do that alone. I need her employer. I need good public policy to also lean in if we're gonna reduce the number of households coming to get food from the food bank. Well, I mean, if you could say more along that point specifically, of course, the food bank can't do everything in the world. And we would hope that, in the long term, it's you're not serving the same families, the same individuals repeatedly over time. And so how do you all think about that balance between, you know, long term, very systemic, involving the greater community of San Antonio policy, business, you know, and individuals, versus addressing the short term, very critical, essential needs that this family needs to eat this evening. How do you strategize between those two and find your appropriate role? Well, we definitely do it with jargon, and I'm gonna share some of it. So, you know, we tend to think of the two sides of our work as feeding the line, the need for food immediately, and then shortening the line. How do we how do we get people out of it in that parable of giving a fish or teaching the fish? I think it's those two sides that have to be done in tandem. I always modify the parable that, you know, if you don't pack a tuna fish sandwich, she's not gonna meet you at the dock. Right? That Latina, again, she's working, she's a parent, she would love to learn how to fish Mhmm. But if her babies go hungry, if she goes hungry, she's not gonna meet you at the dock. She's not gonna go on that expedition to try to learn. If you didn't investigate to to find out if the fishing industry is actually a living wage that will transition her to a better life, you're just frustrating her. So you can't ignore the fact that people have to eat while you're combining a strategy to move them forward. And I think the food bank has a strategy of what we call food for today, food for tomorrow, and then food for a lifetime. Our food for today work is the physical groceries and meals that we distribute. When someone's hungry, their cupboards are bare, their refrigerator's empty. Anywhere in our 29 counties, they either call us Cory they walk in or they connect online.

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We're gonna address that today need with a referral to one of our 800 partners. We're gonna connect them to some of our programs that might be in community giving away the physical food. And if you think in a 12 month period, the value of that is about a $180,000,000 worth of food.

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So in and out of the food bank every day is about 8 to 12 tractor trailer loads of food. All of that comes in, it goes out, and that is what we're doing to solve the immediate symptom of hunger today. But while we're connected to that individual and family, we have this conversation food for tomorrow. And for us, that means, have you thought about applying for public benefits? Programs like the supplemental nutrition assistance program, SNAP, or women, infants, and children, WIC, or do you need health insurance? Maybe Medicaid Cory the children's health insurance program. If you're a senior, long term Cory. All of these are federal safety nets that for our community, based on fear, stigma, they oftentimes go unutilized. The state has policies that can sometimes be barriers to participation. It used to be in Texas when you applied for food stamps, you had to be finger imaged. It was kind of associated as committing a crime, and so nobody wanted to apply for those benefits. With improved policy, we were able to remove that strategy that kept families from actually getting the help that they desperately needed. From my vantage point, man, if I could get someone on SNAP, maybe it's less demand here at the food bank. Right? That family now has access to groceries at HEB or Walmart, and maybe it's more culturally relevant and, the the varieties of food that they know and are familiar with. That value was estimated in total about$250,000,000 a year in our food for tomorrow strategy. So it's actually a bigger benefit to the households we serve, but oftentimes, most people in San Antonio have no clue that the food bank is working in that space.

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One simple way to think of it is when you think about applying for SNAP, the former food stamp program in

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10, and

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40 on their own.

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Once a household's stable, right, they've got those basic needs starting to be Ames. Based on their income low, they qualify for that program. The next opportunity is what we we call food for a lifetime, and that's really about workforce development, job training, job placement. How can we get their wage up? And this is a challenge, I think, across the United States. It's known as the benefits cliff. You might be earning a wage, and when you stack benefits, your household's, you know, somewhat stable. If you start to increase your wage, the benefits might drop off. That's the cliff where you need to take a more quantum leap and an hourly rate forward or higher to actually bridge what you lost to that new wage. And so working through those strategies, but really, I think that's where there's opportunity for that public policy to think through. How do we make a system that helps people move forward and not keep them hostage to a benefit? Right? When someone turns down a wage increase because they lose their childcare Mhmm. The system isn't working. Right? So but most policy, it's to stay to sustain life, not a lifestyle. And so, hey, policy makers, they're concerned about sometimes the make and model of a car someone drives, or hey, where did they shop and what did they eat and, you know, it's not fair that they get this when this person doesn't get that.

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All of that food waste, when captured for its best and highest use, someone eats it, that there's a mechanism by which those that have it can donate it, and there's an entity to get it to those that need it. So number 1, the thing that we're most proud about is the fact that we keep food from going into the landfill and get it on the table for hungry families. And that is not only good for feeding the hungry, but it's fantastic for the environment. Right?

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There's 4 big barriers to nutrition. When you think about it, income is the biggest driver. How much you make determines how well you eat. Geography is the next big barrier where you live. You could live in a food desert, urban, world. Do you have access to a grocery store? Education. You might have access to produce, but you never were taught how to cook. And how do I make a recipe that my kids will like? The 4th big barrier is really the commerce around food and how it's marketed, displayed. It's weird.

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Okay in moderation, but the dollar menu shouldn't be a staple in anyone's diet. Right?

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No longer, right, should it be acceptable that your ZIP code determines your life expectancy. We should be counteracting ZIP code geographical barriers to health in a way that's equitable and allows for those communities to get access to healthy food.

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They have Sunday school. We have the lab, and this is the place where people can actually exercise their faith. They can live in their finest hour, and they can be a better person. And the cool thing is is they feel better from doing it. Like, oftentimes, we hear that, man, I came to help someone else, but I think I walked away with a greater benefit than what I delivered.

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Absolutely. It seems as if the food bank facilitates a really incredible opportunity to connect greater with our our food, where it Ames from, the the purpose of it, our community, and as well as a result of the service, it Ames, ourselves too. And and I I'm interested, Eric, as as dynamics are changing in San Antonio, it's a rapidly growing city. We're experiencing record numbers of of growth in population. We're Ames well seeing, a boom economically.

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Small businesses, restaurants, etcetera worry that providing PTO would financially bankrupt them and make the business unprofitable. And I run a business. I have those same fears. You're trying to balance revenue and expenses, so I I don't want to villainize them. But as a human being, all of us are gonna get sick. All of us are gonna run into situations that you can't go to work, and all of us need a break. Mental health's important, so being able to take vacation even though you can't afford to go anywhere, but just, you know, maybe get some work done at the house is a is a human need. And and to think that business was not wanting to provide that because the worker, again, the Latina, she's always gone to work sick. If she didn't, she doesn't get paid. And when she doesn't get paid, she can't make her rent. Then the pandemic hits, and there's this awakening to a virus that would spread if someone's sick. So we told her, Hey, if you have these symptoms, stay home.

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And during the pandemic, we had to get a bigger part of that plate because people's income shrunk. Government did a little bit Cory, but did it in different ways, and some received a benefit, others didn't. It needs to be consistent, and I think the ideal way would be an income strategy. I tend to think food is not the answer to solve hunger, money is. It's really an income issue. It's not a food issue when it comes to addressing hunger. If we can get wages up, gotta control expenses and inflations cause some harm, but then you're gonna be able to have families that can be much more stable in our society, and that's the community I wanna live in. I want a San Antonio where everyone thrives, not where there's winners and losers. And I think that opportunities are ours. It's a choice. You know?

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So one brag is, man, Mike Flores at Alamo Colleges, students oftentimes don't finish their degree because of stress related to household expenses and putting food on the table for themselves and their family, so they drop out. Doctor Flores would say, hey. My biggest competition for students isn't UTSA. It's poverty.

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If this conversation sparked your interest, I'd encourage you to learn more about the San Antonio Food Bank and consider how you might get involved in their important work or with an organization that's comparable in your community. And if you enjoy this episode of Ensemble Texas, check out some of our other videos where we explore stories of resilience and innovation all across San Antonio and Texas. Soon to come, we'll have a part 2 with the San Antonio Food Bank where I speak with their director of food sustainability, Mitch Hagney, on the 75 Ames that the food bank farms within San Antonio. So be sure to subscribe and look out for that. Thanks for watching or listening.

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Until next time.