SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio community has helped those in need get through nine difficult weeks of COVID-19 impact.
The San Antonio Food Bank showed just how far the community’s generosity extended in its COVID-19 Crisis Impact Report, which was released Wednesday.
The report states 17 million pounds of food were distributed through 16 counties. There were 33,500 vehicles served at drive-thru distributions, and volunteers helped more than 26,000 hours.
CEO Eric Cooper said "San Antonio Strong" has proven true in our community.
“It's been the COVID-19 crisis that has brought out this need,” he said. “But it's also brought out incredible generosity.”
It was generosity that was seen when hundreds of families pulled up for mega food distribution days at places like the Alamodome and the Trader’s Village Flea Market parking lot. Ten thousand people were served on April 9.
“But it was residents of our city, it was companies headquartered here, it was, you know, churches, it was foundations, it was amazing individuals -- that all started to contribute so that we could keep the supply equal to the demand, not to run out of food," Cooper said.
Some $9.1 million purchased 200 semi-truck loads of food over the last nine weeks, and federal funds are now arriving.
Cooper said those funds arrived just in time because the future is so uncertain.
“The cities are opening, and the economy might be strengthened, but we don’t know what the future is going to bring,” he said.