El Pasoans Fighting Hunger

El Pasoans Fighting Hunger (epfh) relies on more than 130 partnerships to distribute food each week throughout the El paso, culberson and hudspeth counties.these partnerships include churches, soup kitchens, and shelters that continue the mission of making sure no one goes hungry. The organization distributes nutritious food to a minimum of 100 families per site, who live in under served or unserved neighborhoods. Unlike most Hunger relief programs, where individuals are handed a pre-packed box of food, client choice allows individuals the opportunity to select the food items they need to feed themselves and their families. In october 2018, the organization started providing healthy food to 2,000 extremely low income senior citizens in our community on a monthly basis. Prior to 2018, this critical program did not exist in El paso, Texas. Epfh nutrition education coordinator teaches free classes through the snap nutrition education & obesity prevention grant program. The program is designed to improve the likelikhood that people eligible for snap benefits will make healthy food choices within a limited budget and choose a physically active lifestyle. Classes are taught for all ages from preschool to high school aged students, adults, parents and senior citizens. The organization teams up with communities in schools, a program dedicated to meeting the needs of students to empower them to stay in school. Currently, 14 school pantry sites within tornillo, clint, ysleta and socorro independent school districts are providing meals to students and their families within their community. The organization proudly obtained the Texas department of agricultures highly competitive contract to manage the nslp. Through this program, the organization services 185,000 low income children across 182 schools in seven west Texas counties.