Local Food Pantry Hosts First Banquet to Help Food Insecure Families

Something good is happening for families that are food insecure across North Texas, thanks in large part to the innovation of a certain organization.

Crossroads Community Services Dallas, a nonprofit in the city, serves more than 26,000 people each month and that number continues to grow. In 2020, at the height of the global pandemic, the organization distributed more than 11.8 million pounds of food as so many families found themselves without a paycheck and nowhere to turn.

The organization recently held their first Nourish Change Breakfast for members of the community, including Dallas Mavericks CEO Cynt Marshall, to come and see exactly what they do in their warehouse. At the same time, people were invited to donate their time, talents and treasure.

The event raised thousands to help feed food insecure families.

Speakers at the event included Dr. Marc Nivet, Executive Vice President of Institutional Advancement at UT Southwestern Medical Center as well as Jasmine Crowe-Houston, founder and CEO of Goodr. Goodr is an organization that prides itself on “feeding more and wasting less.”

The conversation with Crowe-Houston was moderated by NBC 5 Today’s Laura Harris.

“During that period where all jobs were halted and even family was not able to support people, you saw so many showing up in lines and pantries. Especially people who have children. Those kids weren’t getting lunch or breakfast because schools were closed to in person learning,” President and CEO of Crossroads Benaye Wadkins Chambers said.

Wadkins Chambers said the need continued and so did Crossroads, no matter how much of a strain the need put on the organization.

“Even now, we still have 1.3 million children for various reason not back in school. Those kids need to eat. Now add inflation to all of that,” she said. “We are still getting nine trucks a week from the North Texas Food Bank. That’s 400,000 pounds every week into this facility that we are distributing out,” Wadkins Chambers said.

Crossroads is located in the Redbird area of the southern sector of Dallas and serves 18 zip codes through our in-house pantry.  Additionally, Crossroads is the food distribution hub to 140+ partners agencies and distributes food through the agencies to food insecure communities in Dallas, Ellis and Navarro counties.