Harvest Texarkana Regional Food Bank will receive a truckload of food from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as a response to last week's winter storm.
Being delivered to The East Texas Food Bank this week will be 42,000 pounds of mixed goods. The 25 pallets of food are being donated by the Church of Latter-day Saints to help aid those impacted by the winter storm that left millions of Texans without power and water.
Executive Director Camille Wrinkle said 12 of those pallets will then be distributed to Harvest Regional Food Bank.
"We're actually going to send one of our trucks over to Tyler to get it on Monday," Wrinkle said. "It's one truckload - roughly about 12 pallets. It sounds like they are making a big push to do this with several food banks, and this is our portion of it."
The donation of mixed canned and boxed goods will include vegetables, chili, fruit, beef, peanut butter, dried milk, as well as numerous other items.
Wrinkle said this donation is coming at a time of great need.
"We absolutely still have a need here in Southwest Arkansas and Northeast Texas," she said. "The need hasn't decreased a lot since last year, but the sources of food through some of the donated food programs has tapered off a bit. So we are, as a network food bank, always trying to figure out where we're going to source additional food."
The donation from the Church of Latter-day Saints is part of its ongoing global effort to care for the hungry. The Church has committed to serving smaller, rural communities that may have difficulty getting food because of a week of employment constraints, rolling blackouts and water issues.
"Any time a group like the Latter-day Saints makes a donation of this size to the food bank, it has a huge impact," Wrinkle said. "We will certainly put it to use. So, we're grateful for anything that a group like them donates, or our partners, who have been supportive through this COVID crisis and as we go into this next year."