Did you know?:

Webb County:

• The estimated cost of a basic, no-frills lifestyle for a family of three in Laredo is $3065 per month, requiring them to earn a monthly income of more than 236% of the poverty line.
• Webb County has a poverty rate of 30%, equaling 68,537 individuals - enough to fill the Laredo Entertainment Center more than 8 times over.
• 34,269 Webb County children live under the poverty line - enough to fill 714 school buses. If these buses were parked bumper to bumper, they would stretch 8.2 miles.
• Nearly half of Webb County residents living under the poverty line work full- or part-time jobs.
• Nearly half of Webb County adults forced to rely on food stamps are working or in job training at least 30 hrs/week.
• Webb County ranks third among Texas counties with large food stamp caseloads in the number of working adults who rely on food stamps to make ends meet.
• Only 57% of Webb County residents who are income-eligible for food stamps participate in the program - if the rest were to receive an average food stamps benefit, this would bring $3,983,473 more in federal support to Webb County every month.
• 83% of Webb County public schoolchildren receive free or reduced-price lunch due to their family's low income.

Our Clients:

• Households served by the South Texas Food Bank have an average annual income of just $8349 before taxes.
• Between August 2006 and July 2007, 90% of the families served by South Texas Food Bank member agencies suffered from "chronic" hunger - that is, they were forced to use charitable food to make ends meet more than four times over the course of a year.
• Of clients surveyed by the South Texas Food Bank, 41% said their food "sometimes" or "often" didn't last and they didn't have money to get more.
• 47% said they "sometimes" or "often" couldn't afford to eat balanced meals.
• Only 11% of households served by the South Texas Food Bank are homeless.
• 89% of the clients served by the South Texas Food Bank are U.S. citizens. The remaining 11% are immigrants residing in the U.S., both legally and illegally.
• Between August 2006 and July 2007, 41% of the individuals served by South Texas Food Bank member agencies were children.