The Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley now has a new refrigerated truck in its fleet of a dozen trucks — a first for the organization that helps serve more than 76,000 people per week.
MolinaCares Accord, in partnership with HEB, donated the truck and presented it to the food bank during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday morning. The truck will be put to use with the food bank’s retail pick-up program.
“Basically what happens is we get products from HEB that are donated to us, and it’s refrigerated products,” Libby Vaughan, Food Bank RGV’s chief executive officer, said about a program the entities have been running for about three years. “This truck is going to help us with those pick-ups from their stores.”
According to a representative from MolinaCares, which was established by Molina Healthcare Inc., the truck donation is just one way that the health insurance company is working to provide assistance to the community.
MolinaCares funds programs that help improve the health and well-being of disadvantaged populations in local communities. It provides government-funded health care through Medicaid, CHIP, Medicare, Medicare-Medicaid (Duals) and Health Insurance Exchange programs.
A team from MolinaCares picked up the truck from Billings, Montana and drove it to RGV Food Bank’s headquarters in Pharr.
The truck, a Navistar International 4300, is 26-feet long with a capacity for 10,000 pounds of food and 1,800-cubic-feet of cargo space.
“This is the first (truck) that HEB and MolinaCares have donated to the food bank,” Vaughan said. “We already had a fleet of 12, so this will make 13.”
Vaughan said the truck was already put into use following its introduction Tuesday. It was used to distribute diabetic-specific meals to approximately 30 families in the community.
“This truck alone — each time we do a distribution, we are able to give out at minimum 10,000-pounds of food at one time,” Vaughan said. “It’s going to help feed a lot of people.”
To see more, view Monitor photojournalist Joel Martinez’s full photo gallery here:
Photo Gallery: Valley food bank gifted its first refrigerated truck
