Food Access Fair offers one-stop shop for West Dallas neighbors looking for emergency groceries

West Dallas residents looking for groceries or meals live in proximity to several distribution centers and pop-ups in the neighborhood. But how easy is it for people to figure out when, where and how to access these resources? 

Ashley Hutto, manager of the City’s West Dallas Multipurpose Center, says she talks to several neighbors every month who are trying to find places that provide emergency food. The center provides food to seniors through the People and Nutrition (PAN) program and hosts fresh produce drive-throughs, but the dates and times of those offerings don’t always line up with neighbors’ needs.

Hutto says the ideal would be to have a continuously updated list of community food distribution sites because “we need something that can tell people, ‘Well, today is Monday; on Tuesday you can go here to get food, or if you can’t make it somewhere until Wednesday, you can visit this other place.’ ”

“That kind of list doesn’t exist,” Hutto says. “There isn’t enough manpower to be able to maintain a list, community by community.”

A food access fair at the multipurpose center this Saturday, in conjunction with the Dallas Environmental Commission, aims to eliminate some confusion by offering “one place with information about food pantries and nonprofits, for food insecure neighbors to be able to learn where to go for food items,” says organizer Esther Villarreal, a Victory Gardens resident who is West Dallas’ appointed environmental commissioner.

Most food distribution centers and pop-ups are run by nonprofits and volunteers who work independently. Hutto says it would require a lot of coordination to keep some sort of database or website updated all of the time.

Henry Martinez Jr. launched the grassroots Ledbetter Eagle Ford Food Pantry in 2020. He says that because of needs in Ledbetter, the neighborhood volunteers who run the pantry now travel to different locations in an effort to be as close as they can to those who need emergency food. The pantry decides which areas to be closest to based on in-person feedback at pantries, Facebook comments, and word-of-mouth. Martinez says that on some occasions they assist 50-80 people. Information on food distributions is communicated through their Facebook. 

“A map would be great … but for us, we don’t know in what community we are going to be needed the most,” Martinez says. “It’s a great idea and I wish we could create a map like that to let people know we are going to be, but we don’t have the people to do a map like that.”

Wesley Keyes, CEO of 80-year-old faith-based nonprofit Brother Bill’s Helping Hand, says they establish consistent dates for their grocery store, a client-choice food pantry.

“Our most effective tool for spreading information is word of mouth,” Keyes says. “Our top platforms for engagement are Facebook and Facebook Messenger.”

According to the website, a 30-minute grocery shopping window at the pantry requires an appointment and being registered as a Brother Bill’s family, though Keyes says individuals are registered onsite if they do not have an appointment. Their eligibility requirements are the same as the USDA’s Emergency Food Assistance Program, funneled through the North Texas Food Bank, which is “all based upon income and is all self-declared,” he says.

At this point, Keyes says, “our biggest challenge is managing the increasing number of families seeking our services. We’re serving more people than ever in the history of our ministry.”

Brother Bill’s, Ledbetter and several other neighborhood-based food providers will participate in Saturday’s food access fair at the West Dallas Multipurpose Center, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. West Dallas residents who attend will receive free bags of produce and be able to register for live cooking demonstrations of meals that utilize the produce.

Villarrel says food access is a goal of the Comprehensive Environmental & Climate Action Plan (CECAP), and she and Hutto designed the event with the goal of making it easier on West Dallas neighbors to understand their food distribution options and resources.

The Environmental Commission is seeking volunteers for Saturday’s event, especially bilingual volunteers, who can contact Villarreal at esther.villarreal@dallas.gov.