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Elizabeth Allen, EXPRESS-NEWS STAFF WRITER
Publication Date : June 7, 2006

Mark Villa's life had taken a dramatic turn for the worse.

After two tours in Iraq, he got out of the Army in March and returned to his San Antonio home, where his marriage had collapsed and where he was left alone to care for his two small children.

Villa quickly found himself overwhelmed by parenting and looking for a job to help pay the mounting bills, which included a $1,000-a-month day care bill. Basic things for him and his children, like groceries, became scarce.

Growing desperate, Villa, 24, discovered the San Antonio Food Bank and the answer to the problem of how to feed his family.

A worker there immediately brought food, "and me and the kids ate off that for a couple of weeks," said Villa, who soon got a job installing cable. "It really made a big difference in my life, because it bought me time, because we didn't have to struggle."

He's not alone.

Throughout Bexar County and 15 others in South Texas, 25,000 people a week get food from a pantry or shelter supplied by the San Antonio Food Bank, which last year distributed 27 million pounds of food and grocery products to those in need.

Some are children, some are families on the economic edge who don't quite qualify for federal programs, and some are people like Villa, who never thought they'd need such help.

On Tuesday, National Hunger Awareness Day, the food bank and its partners -- in a variety of outreach activities throughout the day -- pressed the theme that "the face of hunger will surprise you."

For many families, "it really is that emergency, that crisis that puts them in the decision mode of, 'Do I pay bills or do I buy food or do I pay rent?"' said Eric Cooper, executive director of the San Antonio Food Bank.

Others get help from the food bank and its partners more regularly, Cooper said. Many of the people who use it are desperately poor.

"In San Antonio a little over 20 percent of our population falls below the poverty line," Cooper said.

For a family of four, that is defined as making $20,000. "Those are extremely poor people," he said.

By comparison, 17 percent of the population in Texas falls below the poverty line, while the figure stands at 13 percent across the U.S., according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The food bank and its partners also try to reach beyond the immediate crisis and "wrap some services around" the people who use them, such as résumé writing classes or utility assistance programs, Cooper said.

The food bank also regularly supplies seniors with food twice a month through Project Hope, and in the summer, children lean on the Food Bank almost every day.

At the Presa Community Center on the city's South Side, more than 100 children from 5 to 11 swigged their chocolate milk, peeled apart their ham sandwiches and picked through their carrots at the Summer Food Service Program. Eligible if they take advantage of free or discounted school lunches, some of them have spent years in the program, said Stephanie Smith, the center's executive director.

Nine-year-old Kayza Dixon, who plans to be a singer, started it last year. So did diminutive Victoria Grundhoeffer, 8, who likes to bring stuffed animals to the center.

Their meals, designed to provide 1/3 of the federal Recommended Daily Allowances for nutrition, are packed at the food bank, Smith said.

The food bank can also help people without making them wade through red tape. That was a boon when U.S. military reservists were deployed to Iraq, and suddenly many of their families found themselves cut off from higher-paid occupations and on a military salary. Their spouses, Cooper said, might be told they would have to sell a car to qualify for benefits.

The federal food stamp program "has some very good, I think, policies to mitigate abuse," Cooper said. "But it goes against individuals that are in need, that are hungry, that have recently stumbled into that situation."

By the numbers
-- Approximately 40,000, or 27 percent of those receiving food from the San Antonio Food Bank network, are children under the age of 18. Of those, 10,500 are under the age of 5.

-- In San Antonio, a little more than 20 percent of the population falls below the poverty line. By comparison, 17 percent of the population in Texas falls below the poverty line, while the figure is 13 percent across the U.S.

-- Throughout Bexar County and 15 other counties in South Texas, 25,000 people a week get food from a pantry or shelter supplied by the San Antonio Food Bank.

-- Last year, the food bank and its affiliates distributed 27 million pounds of food and grocery products.

-- Most pantries allow people access up to six times a year.

-- Individuals who want to help can call (210) 337-3663.