30th Annual Pantry Raid raises 203,760 meals

TYLER — Over the past 30 years, the TISD Pantry Raid has raised over 1.2 million meals. Lauren Barnes told KTBB, “This year, the annual drive made a real impact raising 203,760 meals for TISD students facing hunger.” For the first time ever, the two schools came together to celebrate three decades of the campaign by holding one Tyler ISD-wide Pantry Raid. Also new this year, the campuses did not collect physical food items due to COVID-19 safety measures. Monetary donations were made online and will support ETFB’s programs that serve Tyler ISD students, such as the BackPack Program and Kids Café.

Barnes said, “Sometimes you have families that don’t have access to really healthy food and that can affect a studen’t health. You may think, oh that student gets plenty to eat, but that student may not be getting nutritious foods to eat.”

Barnes continued, “These are very important program. If let’s say the back-pack program lost funding, the schools would have to scramble to try and meet that need. It does help students and they do look forward to getting that food bag on Friday, so that they don’t have to worry about something over the weekend.”