Resource Center food pantry volunteers restocking items
The Dallas Foundation’s Safety Net Fund has given Resource Center a $15,000 grant for its nutrition programs, center officials announced Tuesday.
The funds will help the center’s food pantry and hot meals program. The pantry served 1,930 clients last year. And more than 100 people eat lunch at the center on weekdays, with more than $18,000 meals served last year.
Funding for the programs comes primarily from the Ryan White Care Act, which lost 5 percent of its funding for the 2014 federal budget year. The Safety Net grant will help to supplement government funding and allow the program to maintain its current level of services, according to a statement.
“The budget agreement that resulted from last fall’s federal government shutdown led to cuts in a variety of programs directly affecting the nation’s social safety net, including the Ryan White Care programs,” Center CEO Cece Cox said. “We are grateful that the grant from the Dallas Foundation’s Safety Net Fund helps to partially replace the lost funding so the Center can continue to provide lifesaving nutritional programs to our HIV-positive clients.”
The government shutdown last fall also affected food supplies across the nation. More than 5 million pounds of food were scheduled to be delivered to the North Texas Food Bank with deliveries for nearly 2 million pounds of food were cancelled, which affected the center’s food pantry as well.
