On December 9th, the Houston Food Bank Board Public Policy/Advocacy Team held its first event - a Breakfast Briefing and Tour for the Food Bank's Board of Directors and Houston-area members of the state legislature. The purpose of the event was to educate policymakers about the funding requests Feeding Texas (formerly the Texas Food Bank Network) will be making this January on behalf of the 21 Texas food banks.

At the breakfast, Senator Sylvia Garcia, who served as Delegation Host, related her experience growing up in South Texas to understanding the challenges Food Bank clients face. She also emphasized the importance of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly Food Stamps). Following Senator Garcia, Brian Greene, HFB President and CEO, discussed how the Houston Food Bank is working to pair food assistance with additional social services to help our clients escape poverty.

Celia Cole, president of Feeding Texas then presented a high-level view of state-wide policy priorities for the upcoming 84th Texas Regular Legislative Session, which begins January 13, 2015, including:

• Feeding Texas' request to increase Texas Department of Agriculture grant funding from $2.9M/biennium to $20M/biennium and
• our intention to use $2M of this funding to expand the Brighter Bites Program into additional schools.

Brighter Bites is a Community Partner of the Houston Food Bank and empowers underserved families to choose better, brighter foods by providing fresh produce and nutrition education for greater health. Additional information about this program can also be found on their website.

Brian Greene concluded the event with a tour of the Food Bank's Portwall warehouse. He was joined by Senator Garcia, her staff and senior staff from four other elected officials' office as well as HFB board members and their staff members.