SPRING 2022 NEWSLETTER
CARING FOR OUR CAREGIVERS
Rosalinda’s Story
Like her mother, Rosalinda pursued becoming a home health care provider to take care of others.
“My earliest memories are of my mom caring for individuals in their home or ours for an illness or injury. It’s what I valued, so it made sense years later that my chosen profession would be in health care,” she said.
She spent decades learning under the stewardship of her mother – who also instilled in her a strong passion for volunteerism. Rosalinda began volunteering in 1988 and has since donated her time to various non-profit organizations throughout San Antonio, including the San Antonio Food Bank, where in 2017 she became an Apple Corps volunteer – a leadership volunteer role that commits giving time consistently and regularly.
In 2020, during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, her mother-in-law became very ill and abruptly ended up passing away. On the day of her mother-in-law’s funeral, Rosalinda’s husband was overcome with not feeling well and taken to the hospital in a debilitated state. Her husband passed away on the same day they buried their mother – both dying due to COVID-19.
Rosalinda felt herself sinking as her life changed rapidly. She was grieving, numb, and battling the weight of compounded depression. At times, getting through the day was unattainable as she became buried by the pressures of life.
“I was struggling to deal with life, bills, work, on top of losing two people who were a big part of my life,” she said.
As she searched for solace, her healing took longer than expected. Finding herself without a job and falling behind on bills, she remembered the San Antonio Food Bank and how it would help families in need when she volunteered.
“I was treated with so much respect and love at the San Antonio Food Bank. I had never applied for SNAP and Medicare before, so they were able to walk me through the process with so much patience. This is what saved me – having the worry of food insecurity gone helped me focus on my mental health,” she said.
Self-care and self-attention is critical for caregivers, healthcare workers, and our neighbors to remain healthy – especially in times of crisis.
On December 8, 2021, Ms. Rosalinda Ledesma developed the strength to volunteer again.
“This is what saved me – having the worry of food insecurity gone helped me focus on my mental health.”
The San Antonio Food Bank will continue to serve our neighbors with empathy. By offering food assistance, benefits assistance, and compassion, the Food Bank creates opportunities for neighbors, like Rosalinda, to heal themselves and serve others.
SERVING OUR NEIGHBORS
The San Antonio Food Bank has quickly grown to serve 90,000 individuals a week in one of the largest service areas in Southwest Texas. Through our network partners and our own direct service programs, we are capable of distributing millions of pounds of food and groceries a year to serve our neighbors.
OUR 29 COUNTY SERVICE TERRITORY
The Food Bank serves a diverse group of neighbors in need, and a large part of our service territory is comprised of rural communities.
CREATIVE WAYS YOU CAN
FIGHT HUNGER
FIGHT HUNGER
Be a Feed SA Champion
Feed SA is a citywide movement to fight hunger! With the help of local organizations and partners, Feed SA has donated millions of meals to the Food Bank in the fight against hunger over the past 13 years. Become a Feed SA champion for the 2022 Feed SA season, held from April 17 – June 12. Learn more at feedsa.org.
Volunteer As A Team
Northside ISD has built volunteering into their district’s culture. Since 2020, NISD has committed to volunteering twice per month. Volunteers rotate amongst the high schools, and both staff and students have been instrumental to serving our neighbors. Consider exploring ways your organization can volunteer as a team.
Fundraise With A Lemonade Stand
Owen, 5-years old, and Eva, 3 years old, set up a free lemonade stand and accepted donations for the Food Bank – raising nearly $35. Through family matching and support, these tiny hunger fighters were able to donate over $100 to help nourish our neighbors in need. Fundraising can be FUN for all ages!
Host A Charity Livestream
Twitch affiliate MadTomatoPlays recently held a charity livestream that benefited the Food Bank. Raising $300 during the livestream, MadTomatoPlays donated 2,100 meals for our community. Consider ways to engage your digital community to make a difference.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: VOLUNTEERING FOR YOUR HEALTH
According to a recent study by Dr. Roger Walsh, professor of psychiatry at the University of California Irvine, research demonstrated that spiritual practice and healthy aging go together. In this study, Dr. Walsh listed eight lifestyle factors that contribute to healthy aging. Some were well-known factors such as exercise, diet, and stress management. But others may be surprising to you: time in nature, relationships, recreation, and service to others. It is the last factor to healthy aging – service to others – that is so critical to the work of the San Antonio Food Bank.
Using this study in his recent book “Aging as a Spiritual Practice: A Contemplative Guide to Growing Older and Wiser,” Lewis Richmond unpacks the concept of service to others and its capacity to contribute to healthy aging. What Lewis concluded was this – people who volunteer their time are happier, healthier, and may live longer.
Food Bank President & CEO Eric Cooper outlined this in a TEDx Talk a few years ago titled “Volunteer Vitamins.” Using similar scientific data to Richmond, Eric emphasized that volunteerism promotes health and well-being, but the service must be selfless to truly experience the benefits of the dose. No selflessness, no dose of health-producing chemicals.
We believe service not only heals the individual, it has the opportunity to heal a community. “Feeding Hope” – the Food Bank slogan – has its roots in selfless service. We feed hope when we serve for the benefit of others. While the Food Bank is a great place for anyone to start the journey of selfless service, the most important thing is not where one serves but that you serve.
SERVE AND HEAL. SERVE AND AGE WELL. SERVE AND MEND YOUR COMMUNITY.
ADVOCACY ALERT
Our Government Relations team’s goal is to advocate on behalf of the San Antonio Food Bank, and at the same time, our partners and neighbors. In March, we will be participating in the 2022 National Food Research & Action Center/Feeding America Anti-Hunger Policy Conference. This annual Policy Conference provides us with the opportunity to connect with our peers and other policy staff from around the Feeding America Network. We will participate in sessions, receive the latest information on the Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR) front, and will be provided with tools and information needed to urge Congress to support a hunger-free America.
With Congress debating the Build Back Better federal legislative package, we are hopeful that federal lawmakers will support overall improvements, strengthen programs (Ex: Summer Food, WIC, and critical child nutrition waivers), and implement Child Tax Credit expansions. The Federal Appropriations process has also been an opportunity for Food Banks to advocate for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) support in the way of Storage & Distribution and Infrastructure Grants.
The Food Bank continues to focus on fighting food insecurity and setting the table for our neighbors.
Learn more about our advocacy efforts at safoodbank.org/advocacy.
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT & CEO
The apple has a longstanding place of honor within our San Antonio Food Bank logo. For more than two decades, the community has associated the apple with our name and work in the community. The apple represents health (an apple a day keeps the doctor away) and, as I recently experienced, the apple also signifies unity and peace.
Earlier this year I was humbled to receive an honor on behalf of the Food Bank being recognized as the 2022 San Antonio Peace Laureate. While it was my privilege to receive the award, I received it on behalf of your name, the name of our donors, volunteers, our friends who lift us up in voice, and on behalf of those we serve in their season of need. YOU are the 2022 San Antonio Peace Laureate. Because you leaned in and engaged, our team was able to accomplish this noble mission.
One of the special components of the Peace Laureate award is a tree planting ceremony, in this case an apple tree. Just a few weeks ago, as winter loosened its grip, I gathered with some past Peace Laureates and leaders of the San Antonio Peace Center for the symbolic apple tree planting.
It was a unifying, sacred ritual, and it reminded me of the learning that comes from tending Mother Earth. Fruit-bearing trees, like many trees, shrubs, and plants, need regular attention if they are to truly be fruitful and offer a bountiful harvest. They need to be planted well, in ground that has been carefully cultivated. Of course, they need regular water, the life-giving nourishment that sustains them in our Texas climate. They need pruning, an act that that seems fundamentally destructive to the tree, but actually contributes to a tree growing stronger and healthier; leading to the harvest, when fruit trees provide the culmination of their miraculous cycle.
Receiving this recognition and planting the apple tree afforded me an opportunity to pause and reflect on past years with this organization. From my view, the Food Bank is a lot like the apple tree that now resides at our facility. More than 40 years ago, we were planted by a tremendous group of community leaders. Later, in 2007, the Food Bank’s permanent facility was transplanted to an area containing the richest soil in the region; soil the Belgian farmers tilled for generations before our facility was a reality. The steady and incredible support of our community with gifts of food, time, money, and voice, have nurtured us through droughts, floods, and stormy periods of uncertainty.
Most recently, as the two years of the COVID pandemic gradually diminish, I feel like we have been pruned as a community. We experienced the loss of loved ones, we lost work, we lost classroom time, and we lost connection to each other. However, if the apple tree planting taught me anything, it is that pruning strengthens and shapes us to be our best selves. It is my hope and prayer, that this pruning has prepared us to be the apple for each other and to be the nourishment our neighbor needs in their season. Sometimes we might need the apple, other times we might give the apple, but always we are the apple tree – living, growing, and bearing nourishment for our community.