The over 100,000-square-foot space of the former Valley Fruit Company is a place in motion with forklifts motoring between towering rows of canned goods.

The Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley runs its operations from the historic warehouse site where citrus and vegetables were once processed and packaged. Today, millions of pounds of foodstuffs and produce are shipped out from the same Pharr location to food pantries and nonprofit organizations in the Valley and many destinations nationwide. The last few years have been unlike any others seen in the Food Bank’s history. 

Libby Saenz, the organization’s chief executive officer, described how the Food Bank faced its “ultimate test” in the years of 2020 and 2021. The Food Bank faced a demand like it had never seen between COVID and a hurricane. It subsequently had to vastly increase its volume of foodstuffs being sent out in a condensed period of time. 

The Food Bank shipped out 58 million pounds of comestibles and produce in its 2020-2021 fiscal year. A more typical year would see just over 40 million pounds transported from its north Cage Boulevard location in Pharr. The Food Bank met those challenges with the help of hundreds of volunteers and partners, along with the Texas National Guard lending help during the most urgent months of 2020.

“They were a huge help,” Saenz said of the Guardsmen. “I don’t know what we would have done without them.”

The Food Bank endured those months and moved into a new year building new alliances across the Valley. 

“We’re always trying to tap into every single opportunity we can find to distribute food,” Saenz said. “Our goal is to fight hunger and get people out of the line.”

Reaching Out To Communities

Late September, at Anne Magee Elementary School in Edinburg, a Kids Produce Market truck from the Food Bank pulls up. Trays of fruits and vegetables are unloaded for students to look over and pick and choose their favorites.

It’s a festive event and an example of the partnerships the Food Bank seeks to reach in its communities. In this case, it’s the Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District and UnitedHealthcare as the Food Bank’s partners in one of its many community projects. UnitedHealthcare donated $210,000 for the mobile product market on wheels that takes fruits and vegetables to students in the Edinburg school district.

“These are minds of the future,” said Patricia Longoria, a community advocacy director with UnitedHealthcare. “We need them to be at full capacity and we want to partner with that.”

Saenz was at the Edinburg event to celebrate the produce market kickoff with Edinburg school administrators and community leaders. Such partnerships came into play in 2020 when entities working with the Food Bank stepped up efforts to pass out food supplies when the Pharr headquarters was swamped with people asking for help. Saenz likened it to going “into disaster mode.” The Food Bank and its partners helped well over 100,000 residents during those trying months.

The numbers in more normal times are demanding enough. Food Bank statistics show that the organization and its partners help to feed over 76,000 people weekly and distribute over 48 million meals yearly. The holidays are always a time when distribution amounts increase with Thanksgiving being a time of particular demand.

“Our desire is to serve everybody but we can only do so much,” Saenz said. “Our partner agencies do so much in their communities. Even during the toughest of times, they said, ‘let’s keep going.'”

Seeing Organization Grow

Saenz has spent over two decades with the Food Bank organization.

The Monte Alto native worked her way up the organizational chart. She recalls the days when the Food Bank at its former headquarters in McAllen had 25 employees operating out of a 25,000-square-foot center. There are 80 employees today working out of a Food Bank facility that is four times larger than that site. Volunteers play a crucial role in helping meet the growing demand for supplies with nearly 800 assisting. The Food Bank needs that help as it ranks as the seventh largest in Texas. It is also 49th in size in the United States out of 200 network food banks.

“Get food in, get food out,” said Saenz, with the view of busy forklifts through her office windows, getting shipments ready to go.