HISD distributes food for up to 5,000 families at NRG Park
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The Houston Food Bank, in partnership with HISD, held a massive food distribution event for a second consecutive Saturday in a parking lot near the NRG Park.
On Saturday, drivers lined up to collect fresh and packaged foods.
The donations were for families of HISD students, but also open to anyone in need.
SEE MORE: HISD resumes giving out free meals for students
Boxes that weighed around 100 pounds were placed in trunks. Individuals inside of the vehicles were told to keep their windows closed while volunteers and members of the National Guard did the heavy lifting.
The event was opened two hours early because of the heavy demand. More than 1,500 vehicles went through the lanes per hour, according to the Houston Food Bank CEO, Brian Greene.
"We expect to serve more people than we did last week," Greene said.
It shows the impact of the job losses and no paychecks on the Food Bank.
"Overwhelmingly, as we've asked people what's going on, what we're seeing are people who, hopefully, are in a temporary unemployment situation, but unfortunately, we don't know how long this situation is going to last," Greene said.
On some days, he said the Houston Food Bank has provided one million pounds of food to its partner pantries, as demand increases.
"We started preparing for this as soon as we looked at projections the virus and the job losses could have. We brought in more product and issued more contracts for supplies," he said.
That will allow the food distributions at NRG to continue, with another one next Saturday.
"We'll do it as long as NRG will allow us to be here," Greene said. "It doesn't solve the problems of someone in need, but it does make it better."
