The region鈥檚 primary food bank wants to provide child care, workforce development, health care and other services to neighbors living just west of downtown.
Tarrant Area Food Bank is building a Community Resource Center at the nonprofit鈥檚 Fort Worth headquarters. The $3.5 million project will renovate a section of the food bank鈥檚 Agricultural Hub building. Officials are set to break ground at the end of the month, according to .
The Community Resource Center will allow the food bank, which services 13 counties in North Texas through its network of over 500 partners, to provide access to social services as well as food to nearby Fort Worth residents, said Julie Butner, president and CEO of Tarrant Area Food Bank.
鈥淭here are other neighbors where it takes longer for them to get out of food assistance needs, and it may be because of a job, it may be because of an illness,鈥� Butner said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what we鈥檙e thinking about when we say we want to do more than food, and we鈥檙e going to do that through this Community Resource Center.鈥�
Previously, Tarrant Area Food Bank wasn鈥檛 structured to provide food and resources directly to people who came to the nonprofit鈥檚 facility at 2600 Cullen St. However, the shifting needs of neighbors became more apparent, Butner said, when folks began knocking on the nonprofit鈥檚 front door and asking for help.
The area in and around the food bank also changed. What was primarily a neighborhood of warehouses has seen a growth in residential developments.
鈥淲e are discovering that there are more community members living in this area, some of whom are in jobs that are low-income, and are looking to the food bank for services,鈥� Butner said.
In 2025, Tarrant Area Food Bank created a community market, funded with the support of , to see how great the need was. The nonprofit saw high daily demand and usage of the market despite not advertising the service, Butner said.
What services will the Community Resource Center provide?
- A community market.
- Low-cost child care services.
- Health screenings.
- Community workforce development services.
- SNAP, WIC, TANF application support.
The Community Resource Center is set to build off of the success of the market, officials said. Alongside continued funding by H-E-B and other potential partners, the Tarrant Area Food Bank will provide other services that improve social drivers of health, they said.
Food banks are beginning to deliver services that are often needed by people who suffer from food insecurity, Butner said.
Tarrant Area Food Bank is now part of this 鈥渘ext evolution鈥� for food banks, she said, becoming service points for communities in areas outside of food needs.
鈥淣ot every food bank has the resources to do it, but it is where the movement is going because food insecurity rates are not coming down at the rate that we would like for them to come down,鈥� Butner said. 鈥淭he underlying causes of food insecurity have to also be addressed.鈥�
Ismael M. Belkoura is the health reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at ismael.belkoura@fortworthreport.org.
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