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‘Things are hard’: Thousands line up at Globe Life Field for food after winter storm

The Tarrant Area Food Bank says they distributed food to 10,000 families since the winter storm passed last week, and fed another 2,330 in Arlington on Thursday.

ARLINGTON — By the time the electricity came back, the temperature inside Tina Clark’s fridge was higher than inside the rest of her Fort Worth trailer.

Clark, 57, and her rat terrier mix Coco took refuge with her sister, but they lost all their food during the power outage.

Many Texans were left hungry after temperatures plummeted during last week’s winter storm. Power companies shut off power to cope with extreme demand, and food spoiled in warming refrigerators and freezers. Deliveries were delayed, leaving grocery store shelves bare.

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Clark, who is unemployed, heard on the news that the Tarrant Area Food Bank was giving out thousands of pounds of food at Globe Life Field on Thursday. She put Coco in the front seat of her yellow VW bug and got in line.

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“Things are hard,” she said. “What little money we do get can go to the bills or if something goes bad like this last weekend.”

Tina Clark and dog Coco from Fort Worth waited as volunteers and members of the Texas...
Tina Clark and dog Coco from Fort Worth waited as volunteers and members of the Texas National Guard loaded her car with food from the Tarrant Area Food Bank in a parking lot of Globe Life Field in Arlington on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021. (Juan Figueroa / Staff photographer)
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Clark’s VW was one of more than a thousand vehicles lined up Thursday for food in the parking lot outside the stadium. Army National Guard troops and dozens of volunteers sorted food into boxes and bags, directed traffic and loaded food into popped trunks and pickup beds.

They filled three or four cars at a time with milk and potatoes and pasta and lettuce and grapefruits and cheeses and hummus and peanut butter and fruit cups and more. Each family left with 75 to 100 pounds of food, including meat, produce and nonperishables.

The Tarrant Area Food Bank says they distributed food to more than 11,000 families after the winter storm passed last week, and fed another 2,330 on Thursday. On Friday they’ll give out more at Fort Worth’s Herman Clark Stadium and on Saturday at their Fort Worth distribution center.

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“This is really in response to last week’s winter weather,” said Julie Butner, president and CEO of the Tarrant Area Food Bank. “This is a way to provide support in the form of food so they don’t have to pay for food.”

Butner said the food bank had a surplus because their warehouse was closed last week. Then, donors stepped up with even more.

The USDA’s Coronavirus Food Assistance Program provided boxes of fresh produce from farmers. Retailers like Hello Fresh and Trader Joe’s dropped off truckloads of food that would otherwise go to waste because stores were closed last week, Butner said.

Like food banks nationwide, the TAFB became accustomed during the pandemic to distributing truckloads of food to lines of cars that can stretch for miles. The winter storm put more people out of work, ruined refrigerated food and created an even greater demand for food in Texas, Butner said.

All this, on top of a global pandemic.

“The culmination [of both crises] means there are more people out there that need our help,” Butner said.

In another massive parking lot outside the stadium, traffic cones marked the spot of Arlington’s major vaccination hub. A FEMA-run site will open here tomorrow, and the city of Arlington administered doses of the Moderna vaccine at Esports Stadium on Thursday.

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When Douglas Cooper, 65, first arrived for food Thursday morning, he accidentally got in line for vaccinations.

“That tells you how the country is right now,” said Cooper, an Arlington resident. “Everybody’s got something they’re going through.”

Cooper said he had been to the food bank’s earlier distributions in response to the pandemic. When he lost power and water due to the winter storm, he lost everything in his fridge. He wanted fresh food for himself and his grandchildren, he said.

“It’s important for the families, it’s important for the kids,” he said. “We’re just thankful for these people for coming out, volunteering, helping out. We’re just very thankful.”

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Arlington’s Ken Stacy, 59, was among the first to line up Thursday morning, around 7:30 a.m. He played Chuck Berry from his truck speakers with the windows down, smoking cigarettes and waiting for the lanes to open.

He said his power was out for over 40 hours last week. As soon as the lights came back on, the water went out, he said. Everything in his fridge had to be trashed, although he tried rescuing freezer food by storing it outdoors in the frigid temperatures.

Stacy used to work on HVAC systems but said jobs have been hard to come by during the pandemic. After a recent back surgery, he’s had to live off disability checks.

“And that’s enough to pay the bills,” he said, but restocking his pantry after the storm was too difficult. “It was already hard out there. It seems like it’s getting worse.”