With food prices rising, United Way of Southern Cameron County and other organizations have stepped up to help.
The organizations, which include Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley and the Brownsville Wellness Coalition, will hold a drive-thru food distribution event from 8 to 11 a.m. – or until supplies last – Friday at the Brownsville Event Center, located off Paredes Line Road in Brownsville.
Families are being provided with non-perishable items and fresh produce at the event held every other Friday. These services started earlier this month.
“We anticipate there are a large amount of families that are still in need of food, and this is because food prices have sky rocketed over the past couple of weeks,” said Wendy De Leon, development and communications director of UWSCC. “We are doing this to help battle food insecurity due to the very high prices.”
De Leon said no documentation is needed to participate in the food-distribution event. Families just need to drive up, open the trunks of their vehicles and the volunteers will put the bags in the vehicles.
The groups handed out food to 700 to 1,000 families June 3. They anticipate handy out another large amount Friday.
During that first event, motorists waited in line overnight to ensure they would receive groceries. The first car that lined up had showed up at 10 p.m. June 2 to make sure they would get groceries, De Leon said.
De Leon asked that the public not wait in line overnight and instead show up an hour or two before Friday’s event, noting that organizations are working to ensure there is food for everyone.
“We know that we do have people waiting overnight to get food and we don’t encourage it. We are trying to get more food every week that we do this so that people don’t have to spend the night there. We don’t want to see our families there overnight waiting for a box of food.”
The food distributions will be held every other Friday with the next one scheduled for July 1. Organizers anticipate the food distribution events to continue through the summer.
Donations to UWSCC can be made at: www.unitedwayrgv.org
