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Meal delivery program for homeless reaches milestone

Monday, October 12, 2020 by Tai Moses

People experiencing homelessness have always struggled to find nutritious, regular meals, and the Covid-19 pandemic has made this essential undertaking even more difficult. In response to the need, the city launched a unique meal delivery program called Eating Apart Together. For six months now, nearly 20 community partners have helped distribute thousands of meals that are assembled at the Palmer Events Center. As of last week, EAT had served more than 500,000 meals to homeless people and distributed “more than 10,000 face coverings, seven pallets of dog food, 18,000 gallons of bottled water and more than 132,000 individual bottles of water.” The city’s food policy manager, Edwin Marty, said in a news release announcing the half-million-meal milestone, “As someone who has worked in food policy for 25 years, I have noticed a huge gap in addressing the problem of hunger and homelessness within cities. As far as we know, no other city has ever implemented this kind of approach to feeding their unsheltered neighbors.” Assistant City Manager Chris Shorter calls EAT an “ambitious and effective program, which has met a critical need for food in our community while simultaneously helping to minimize the spread of Covid-19.” Find more information about the EAT initiative, including how to volunteer or contribute food or other resources, at AustinTexas.gov/eat.

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