HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In partnership with Amazon, Houston Food Bank is delivering hope to the local community in the form of much-needed meals and nourishment delivered directly to the doorsteps of vulnerable Houstonians in need. Since Amazon established its Community Delivery program with Houston Food Bank in May 2020, the company has now delivered more than 500,000 meals to vulnerable families, children, and senior citizens in Greater Houston area. In addition, Houston Food Bank received logistical support from Amazon’s Houston fulfillment center, which helped package boxes of food equivalent to more than 450,000 meals.
“One of the biggest lessons learned during the pandemic, especially for essential organizations/workers and those on the frontlines, is the importance of partnerships and working together for the greater good,” says Brian Greene, president and CEO of Houston Food Bank, the largest food bank in the nation in distribution. “For organizations like Houston Food Bank, who experienced never-before-seen demand for assistance coupled with increased restrictions, a drop in volunteer workforce, and strict health and safety protocols, these partnerships were crucial to getting the monumental task done. Amazon has made – and continues to make – a huge impact. They saw a need then made a commitment and a plan to make a difference in the local communities where their employees live and work.”
Amazon’s Houston fulfillment center took the local partnership one step further by doing what Amazon does best – packing and shipping product. After walking the Houston Food Bank’s main warehouse facility with its leadership team, Amazon saw a way to help utilize its own warehouse capacity and volunteer employees to ease some logistics burden from the food bank.
For this new initiative, non-perishable products are delivered from Houston Food Bank to Amazon’s Houston fulfillment center where Amazon volunteers unload, sort, and repack food items and individual meals into boxes and re-palletize, then deliver the pallets (55 cases per pallet) back to the Houston Food Bank’s main warehouse for easy and efficient distribution to the community. Over the last six months, this new initiative has helped to produce over 600,000 pounds of food, equivalent to more than 450,000 meals packaged by Amazon’s team.
“Our employees are a part of the fabric of the Houston community and there is no greater joy for me than being able to use my career with Amazon to also serve those who are in need,” said Sundeep Sangha, site leader, Amazon customer fulfillment. “We take great pride in being able to leverage our scale for good in order to support the communities where our employees live, work and play.”
Amazon has also partnered with Houston Food Bank’s Teacher’s Aid program and co-hosted a volunteer event on September 18, donating classroom supplies and sharing information about SNAP acceptance and benefits with 800 Title 1 school teachers representing 10 Houston area school districts.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon has supported food banks and community organizations with free, contactless delivery of groceries and pre-packaged meals using a network of Amazon delivery service partners around the world. Deliveries now total more than 12 million meals in more than 25 U.S. cities and in communities across Australia, Japan, Singapore, Spain, and the U.K.
If you or someone needs assistance and for more information on Houston Food Bank, visit www.houstonfoodbank.org.
About Houston Food Bank
Houston Food Bank’s mission is to provide food for better lives. In the last fiscal year, which includes COVID-19 response, we provided access to 207 million nutritious meals in 18 counties in southeast Texas through our more than 1,800 community partners of food pantries, soup kitchens, social service providers and schools. Filling gaps on plates, we have a strong focus on healthy foods and fresh produce. In collaboration with our community, we advocate for policy change and racial equity, and promote dialogue on ways to increase access to food and to improve the lives of those in our communities, including services and connections to programs that address the root causes of hunger and are aimed at helping families achieve long-term stability: nutrition education, job training, health management, and help with securing state-funded assistance. We are a resource for individuals and families in times of hardship. Houston Food Bank works alongside our partner food banks in Montgomery County, Galveston County and Brazos Valley. Houston Food Bank is a certified member of Feeding America, the nation’s food bank network, with a four-star rating from Charity Navigator.
Visit us online. Website: houstonfoodbank.org; Facebook: facebook.com/thehoustonfoodbank; Twitter: @houstonfoodbank; Instagram: @houstonfoodbank; YouTube Channel: youtube.com/houstonfoodbank
