The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health is grateful to announce that it has provided emergency funds to seven food banks representing 92 counties in Texas. In choosing the food banks, foundation staff reviewed data from the 18 major food banks across the state, including criteria such as pounds of food provided, counties served, total population of those counties, percentage and number of people struggling with hunger in each county, and counties with unemployment rates greater than 6 percent as of February 2020.
The following food banks each received $1500 in funding:
- East Texas Food Bank (Tyler)
- Food Bank of the Golden Crescent (Victoria)
- North Texas Food Bank (Plano)
- San Antonio Food Bank (San Antonio)
- Southeast Texas Food Bank (Beaumont)
- South Texas Food Bank (Laredo)
- West Texas Food Bank. (Midland-Odessa)
In addition, the foundation is responding to the pandemic through other activities, such as co-signing the Council of Foundations’ pledge of action on COVID-19 and providing additional funding support to current grantees. The Council of Foundations’ pledge includes provisions such as loosening restrictions on current grants; supporting organizations created and led by the communities most affected that are not current grantees; and supporting grantees in advocating for public policy changes to fight for needed services and supports during the pandemic, as well as providing additional support to current grantees.
These actions reflect the foundation’s ongoing adaption of its operations to the new reality represented by the pandemic and its emerging understanding of what communities need to protect their mental health in the time of COVID-19.
“As a philanthropic organization, our core values are especially relevant at a time of crisis and uncertainty like the present,” said Dr. Octavio N. Martinez, Jr., executive director of the Hogg Foundation and senior associate vice president for diversity and community engagement at The University of Texas at Austin. “At this time of immeasurable anxiety for Texans we have a simple message for our grantees and the communities in which our funds operate: We’re still here, and we support you.”
The foundation has also pivoted its communications to the public’s need for leadership and mental health support in the time of COVID-19. The following resources are now available on the foundation’s website:
- Resources for Mental Health and COVID-19
- Elder Mental Health in the time of COVID-19
- Behavioral Health Equity in the Time of COVID-19
- Podcast: Sheltering in Uncertainty: Coping with COVID-19
- Podcast: Census 2020 in the Time of Coronavirus
- The coronavirus crisis exposes our society’s weaknesses. It’s time to correct them.
- COVID-19: Protecting Kids from the Fear Pandemic