image via facebook.com/SoupMobile

Last Thursday I attended Art in the Park at Hall Office Park in Frisco.  Art in the Park, benefiting the North Texas Food Bank and Frisco Family Services,  featured a performance by the band Emerald City, a food truck court and self-guided art tours.

Jan Pruitt, President and Chief Executive Officer of the North Texas Food Bank, and I spent a few moments together where she shared the purpose of the event.

“We are celebrating 30 years of serving the North Texas area and introducing ourselves to Collin County”, says Pruitt.  “Hunger is not just an urban problem.  It is an urban, a suburban and a rural problem.”

For those who don’t know, the North Texas Food Bank is a distribution center supplying food banks and pantries across 13 North Texas counties.  “Over 30 years, the North Texas Food Bank has distributed half a billion pounds of  food throughout 13 counties”, says Pruitt. “Particular to Collin County, there are 22 distribution points that have served 1.7 million nutritious meals across Collin County”.

That is a mind-blowing statistic.  I grew up in Collin County, a very wealthy, even considered the most wealthy county in Texas, and the struggles with hunger and homelessness are sometimes hard for residents to face.  The North Texas Food Bank is making it a priority to reach out within the county, working to fulfill their mission of having a “hunger-free community”.