ROBINSON, Texas (KXXV) — “Food insecurity continues to grow,” Robinson Food Pantry chairman Gerry Harrow said.
“It's pretty packed, and we're worried that at some point in time we're going to outgrow it,”
Shepherd’s Heart Robinson is rebranding as the Robinson Food Pantry — the move is happening after some confusion with its relationship to Shepherd’s Heart Waco.
While Waco helped get the nonprofit get on its feet, the Robinson Food Pantry has been its own organization since 2020.
“It's more for clarity than anything,” Harrow said.
The pantry has had issues directing volunteers and collecting enough donations to meet the growing need.
“February of last year, we were feeding about 300 families, and we're up to 400 now,” Robinson Food Pantry executive director Brittney Fikes said.
“I think it's because we're a Saturday pantry, and people that work during the week are able to come and still get what they need."
“This morning, they talked about 60,000 pounds of food coming out of this one little town here in Texas,” City of Robinson Mayor Greg May said.
The food pantry relies on volunteers to hand out food supplies on the first and third Saturday of each month.
However, the name confusion made it difficult to get those volunteers.
“If we were trying to do this on our own, we wouldn't be able to do it,” Harrow said.
“It's volunteers that come here and pack boxes — you have to pack 300 or 400 boxes that we can hand out every distribution,”
The mayor told 25 News the city will continue to support the pantry as it always has.
“You know a lot of people working paycheck to paycheck, and you really don't understand until you drive over here, and you see this line of people that are waiting on this food that they depend on,” May said.
