It is our hope to enlighten our community about the extreme poverty and hunger in our own backyard and then diminish the number of food insecure people in our area.

The second organization that Trey's foundation will support is the Northeast Louisiana Food Bank. Trey LOVED working with this group packing up canned goods for the senior citizens. His grandfather, Jim Altick, was one of the founders of this food bank making his bond to the food bank even more special.

» www.fbnela.org

All food banks are distribution systems. Food banks are analogous to a grocery chain. A large grocery chain would receive food from throughout the nation, warehouse that food, distribute the food to individual stores, and then sell the food to consumers. Our food bank receives food from throughout the nation, warehouses that food, distributes the food to charitable social agencies throughout the twelve parishes of Northeast Louisiana, and those agencies feed the needy. The distribution system is the core function of any true food bank.

Northeast Louisiana Food Bank distributes over 3,000,000 pounds of food annually through approximately 90 charitable agencies throughout Northeast Louisiana. Our last survey indicated that more than 25,000 people benefit from the food that comes through this food bank on an annual basis, including more than 4,000 children.

In addition to providing the distribution system, our food bank has established a program to provide food to needy senior citizens in the twelve parishes of Northeast Louisiana.

The vast majority of the people that receive food that comes through our food bank do not know that it came from here. They probably do not even know that there is a food bank in the area. However, they do know that there is someone somewhere who cares about them and does not want them to go hungry. They do know that they are important and their life does have value.

There are five regional foodbanks in Louisiana: Monroe, Shreveport, Alexandria, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans.
We serve the population in the twelve parishes that make up the northeast corner of the state. The total land area is 6575 sq.mi. and — according to the 2006 population survey census — is home to 349,564 people, roughly 23.2% of which is food insecure. If you are among this group — you do not have access to enough food to lead a normal, healthy, productive life — we are here to help!

IN NORTHEAST LOUISIANA, over 60,000 children are enrolled in free and reduced lunch. The BackPack Program allows children to bring home nutritious food when other resources are not available, such as on the weekends or during school vacations. BackPacks are filled by volunteers with child-friendly, non-perishable, and vitamin fortified food. The backpacks are then discreetly distributed to the at-risk children at a local school. We are currently distributing 100 back packs, serving 181 children each week.

The Backpack program concept originated in several places, one being the Arkansas Rice Depot in Little Rock.

A school nurse at an inner-city school asked for help because hungry students were coming to her with stomach aches and dizziness. In response, the food bank began providing the school children groceries in non-descript backpacks to carry home, freeing them of the stigma of poverty that many low-income children face among their peers.

The BackPack Program is a national program supported by Americaxs Second Harvest. There are over 110 BackPack Programs operating in 39 states and Washington D.C. The BackPack Program is the fastest growing program within the America xs Second Harvest Network.

³⁷"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'  ⁴⁰"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'  ⁴¹"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴²For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,