Central Texas Food Bank works with Amazon to home deliver groceries

AUSTIN, Texas - The Central Texas Food Bank partners with the Austin Public Health Neighborhood Services Unit and Amazon on a new home delivery program, which will provide families with children and adults 60+ with a monthly box of healthy, shelf-stable groceries, delivered directly to their homes.

Launched as a pilot program on June 1, the service delivers a box with enough food for 25 meals. All groceries are free, with Amazon donating delivery services through their Amazon Flex transportation network, which makes contactless deliveries directly to clients’ homes. APH provides caseload management, screening, and participant enrollment.

"One in seven Central Texans face food insecurity. Unfortunately, many of our neighbors in need simply aren’t able to get out to our food distribution sites," said CTFB president and CEO Derrick Chubbs. "That’s why we’re so excited to partner with Austin Public Health Neighborhood Services Unit and Amazon on this home delivery program. This is another great example of how we can work together as a community to fight hunger."

The program is currently running through the end of 2021 and is open to Travis County households with children and households with adults ages 60 or older who are in need of food assistance and experiencing barriers to attending in-person food distributions.

Once enrolled, participants will receive a recurring monthly food box with approximately 30 pounds of healthy shelf-stable groceries such as oatmeal, pasta, cornflour, dried beans, canned protein, and canned fruits and vegetables delivered directly to their doorstep by Amazon.

The program is designed to be scalable. The three partners hope to expand it in the future by extending food delivery to veterans and people with disabilities and increasing the number of delivery days.

"Central Texas Food Bank works hard to ensure vulnerable groups have enough food to thrive," said Amazon’s director of Right Now Needs and Disaster Relief, Bettina Stix. "We are happy to support our community partner by utilizing our logistics and delivery capabilities to help accelerate their mission-critical work to feed families facing food insecurity in the Austin region."

The goal of the home delivery program is to serve more people in need by increasing the accessibility of food assistance for underserved households. During its first six weeks, the program enrolled 300 households and delivered a total of 8,525 meals.

Since March 2020, Amazon has supported food banks and community organizations with free, contactless delivery of groceries and pre-packaged meals directly to the doorsteps of vulnerable groups. Using Amazon’s network of delivery service partners around the world, deliveries now total more than 12 million meals to underserved families, vulnerable seniors, and school children in more than 25 U.S. cities and in communities across Australia, Japan, Singapore, Spain, and the U.K.

"Our Neighborhood Services Unit has worked tirelessly to ensure local families in need of food assistance can find the help they need," said APH interim director Adrienne Sturrup. "Through our new partnership with the Central Texas Food Bank and Amazon, we are able to provide additional opportunities to expand food access to those who need it most and continue to reduce the barriers to accessing essential services."

Participating households must live in Travis County, be in need of food assistance, and be experiencing barriers to attending in-person food distributions. To determine eligibility and/or enroll in the program, go to their website or contact the nearest Neighborhood Center from the list below.

Rosewood Zaragosa Neighborhood Center: 2800 Webberville Road, 512-972-6740
South Austin Neighborhood Center: 2508 Durwood Street, 512-972-6840
St. John Community Center: 7500 Blessing Avenue, 512-972-5159
East Austin Neighborhood Center: 211 Comal Street, 512-972-6650
Montopolis Community Center: 1200 Montopolis Drive, 512-972-6705
Blackland Neighborhood Center:2005 Salina Street, 512-972-5790

Participants can choose to un-enroll in the program at any time. For those in need of food assistance who don’t qualify for this program, the Food Bank has a proxy policy that allows clients to send someone to get food on their behalf.

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