LONGVIEW, Texas — For the past few weeks, the East Texas Food Bank has held weekly emergency food box distributions in Tyler.
On Thursday, the food bank held its first emergency food box distribution in Longview.
"When the food bank called and said, 'Can we do a food delivery in your city?' We made two phone calls and all of this happened," said Carroll Greenwaldt, with the Longview Rotary Club.
When it was all said and done, hundreds of cars came through and more than 1,500 meals were passed out.
In April, 2.4 million meals have been distributed in East Texas.
In April 2019, only 1.6 million meals were distributed in the same amount of time.
"I think before the pandemic, Greg county had almost 25,000 people that were food insecure," said East Texas Food Bank CEO, Dennis Cullinane. "I'll bet with the swell in the way that the economy has been since the close down that it's probably the 30,000 to 35,000 range."
The National Guard has traveled all across the region with the food bank helping pass out food and has seen the many different people affected by the pandemic.
"I've been to Nacogdoches. I've been to Lufkin. I've been out in Tyler and here," Corporal Marcus James said. "I'm just spreading out to see where all of our hard work and all of the food that has been donated is going to is just a great experience."
Cpl. James knows he needs to be careful when talking to people who come to collect food. Even so, he says helping people in need is why he joined the National Guard in the first place.
"We try to limit the interaction with them, just you know, just to spread the COVID-19, but just seeing how many cars are showing up every day at every single site has just been it's been mind-blowing," Cpl. James said.
