What is a Food Bank? 

A food bank is a charitable center of food collection and distribution in a community. Food usually comes from various sources in the food industry, like grocery stores and wholesalers, that have thousands of pounds of food to give away – food that could otherwise be thrown away.

We warehouse the food, and with help from volunteers, sort, pack and re-distribute it to the community. Traditionally, a food bank does not distribute food directly to those in need. Instead, we serve an extensive network of organizations that put food into the hands of the people living in their communities.

Here’s a typical process:
The Houston Food Bank receives food from retailers, wholesalers, growers, and other food industry sources, in addition to food drives that are held by generous community friends.

We inspect, categorize, and store the food in our warehouse.

A shopping list of available products is provided to our network of nearly 400 member agencies.

Member agencies place their orders. These agencies all maintain their own food pantries or meal sites (such as shelters and soup kitchens.)

Houston Food Bank staff and volunteers pull food from the warehouse and pack each individual order.

Member agencies pick up their food at our location at 3811 Eastex Freeway in Houston; or, in about 40% of the cases, we deliver to the agency.

The member agencies give the food to hungry individuals and families in their service areas, either by distributing groceries, or preparing the food into meals.