It was an idea so simple and obvious that Eric Cooper, president and CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank said, “This was a no-brainer, right?”
Yet now, Cooper said the “first of its kind” partnership with Workforce Solutions Alamo, could serve as a national model.
Having one of its sites on the second floor of the Food Bank was a lesson learned after the pandemic, said Adrian Lopez, CEO of Workforce Solutions Alamo.
With 300,000 jobs lost in the San Antonio region, Lopez said, “Our families have been suffering.”
“This type of partnership is a response to that,” Lopez said. “It’s about how do we help families in a much more profound and essential way.”
Cooper said the partnership helps to better fulfill its mission, “Feeding the line and then also shortening the line.”
He said with the help of Workforce Solutions Alamo, “When we can raise the wage in a household they’re less likely going to need the Food Bank.”
Cooper said often those applying for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ( SNAP) are required to go to a Workforce Solutions site.
Now there is one, open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, directly across from the Food Bank’s career center upstairs.
“Here it saves them gas, saves them time, and eliminates the hassle,” Cooper said.
Alice Rosas, who found her maintenance job at the Food Bank through Workforce Solutions Alamo, said she knows firsthand as a single mother of two, how people feel when they’re out of work and needing food for their families.
Often without enough money for bus fare, much less gas money, Rosas said having Workforce Solutions inside the Food Bank will certainly help.
“Because a lot of these people, they don’t have money to go other places,” Rosas said.
But now, she said, “They’re happy, like you know, I can do everything here in one place.”