Homeless Youth first asked me for healthy food in something like 2011. I was shocked. I was supplying sandwiches (still comforting and familiar), chips, and cookies over a community support group meeting. "Could we get something healthier?" And there were skeptics in the room to be sure. Some said, "Like a little food is going to make a difference when our lives are so screwed up!" But others said they really craved just a little bit of fruit or vegetables. I reluctantly agreed to try it out. I set aside $25 per week for our single meal and group serving about 20 people. The response was really good, although my budget could only fill a paper grocery bag weekly. People really appreciated the effort and the food to supplement the sandwiches.

To stretch the budget, I tried to get donated food and quickly found that was a waste of time. I ended up at a national chain (not from Texas) purchasing their weekly loss leader produce. At the same time, I was buying, they were pulling things that I would have happily served. I asked about it and discovered that they Clorox what they pulled and put it in the dumpster. The store manager was not interested in giving it to me directly. They pointed me to a corporate program for food donation which I applied to and NEVER heard back from.

However, somehow, a man who was a proponent of food recovery heard about me and offered me a food run from a local grocery store once a week. We received huge amounts of food, some at the peak of freshness or ripeness and others past their prime and still others that had to be composted directly. But we prepared two weekly meals from it and began offering fruit, smoothies, and hot meals based on that weekly donation. No longer was it just a fresh supplement but a real hot and nutritious meal, although we had no control over the components. We cooked what we got and served it up. Still... the response was amazing. And it's very clear that mental health, physical health, and mood improved greatly.

All went well until the pandemic and some haters who brought the city down on us because our old location was not really inspectable. In any event, we began to rely on prepared pre-cooked food for distribution. We couldn't even heat it because of the constant harassment by our haters. And then the pandemic came along. Every food pantry, soup kitchen, and clothing pantry in the city closed abruptly. We remained one of the only places open providing food to go for anyone homeless in need. As other organizations figured out how to operate in the confusing pandemic regularly and HR environment, we were joined by lots of other organizations. Thankfully, with vaccination and the passage of time, that's behind us now.

However, food availability has never recovered to its pre-pandemic levels. Unfortunately, the post-pandemic economic pressures mean far less food is reaching the street—much more is going to low-income households in need. Meanwhile, we have a new location. Our weekly food providers are back with fresh and prepared food that we can share with those who need ready-to-eat food as well as those who can take pantry food to cook elsewhere. We've been blessed with the last of the prepared meals still funded by the pandemic efforts, although the last of these appears to be ending as of October 1. Until the pandemic, we really rarely saw hunger in Austin except in those unable to move about the city. Now, it's much more common. We'll have to see what the fall of 2024 and 2025 look like in terms of hunger on the street.