KILLEEN, Texas (KWTX) – Food Care Center in Killeen serves more than one family a minute when their doors open to distribute food on Friday’s. The pantry is hoping to continue to serve the record number of families in need through the holidays with help from Food For Families, the largest one-day food drive in the state of Texas.

“We just keep thinking it’s going to slow down, but, with all the issues in our world at this time…there’s so many folks hurting right now,” Raymond Cockrell, executive director of Food Care Center, said.

Recently, he said the pantry sees tens of thousands of people coming to the pantry each month.

Cockrell said Food Care Center fed around 121,000 people last year, which is a record number of families, children, seniors and active-duty military families. He said more than 25,000 active-duty military families came to the pantry for food.

Food for Families makes up more than 30% of the pantry’s monetary donations each year.

“There’s record number of folks in our communities going without food,” Cockrell said. “No one should ever go without groceries, especially during the holidays. This makes every year’s Food for Families event all the more important.”

About five months ago, the pantry struggled to keep up with the demand due to a lack of supply of proteins and canned goods from Central Texas Food Bank.

Now, Cockrell said the pantry is doing better with keeping up with the record demand as supplies have increased recently, but it is still in need of certain items such as cereals, pastas, oatmeal, dried goods, canned vegetables, canned meats, peanut butter, any nonperishable food item. Monetary donations also go a long way with stocking the pantries shelves.

“For every dollar we get, it counts as 2.5 lbs for Food for Families, but, more importantly, every dollar donated, we can buy five-and-a-half meals,” Cockrell said.

Food for Families is Friday, Nov. 17. It is the largest one-day food drive in the state of Texas. Our KWTX team will be live at 18 different food pantries throughout Central Texas, helping collect nonperishable food items and monetary donations that will help fill pantries’ shelves for the holiday season and beyond.

KWTX is celebrating 34 years of your generosity in helping others. You can donate now by clicking this link.

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