NBC 5 encourages you to support Tarrant Area Food Bank to see that no one goes hungry. Imagine: For breakfast -- nothing; a power lunch -- crackers; supper -- a one-pot meal at a church soup kitchen.

For Tamika Reynolds [not her real name], a single parent, this is not imaginary. ItÂ’s real. SheÂ’s a single mother raising three of her own children and her young cousin, all of whom eat in the free meal program during the school year. With school out, Tamika has to find another way to provide food for her children.

Tamika used to work as a Certified NurseÂ’s Assistant. An accident two years ago left her with severe arthritis in her spine, forcing her to leave her job. SheÂ’s studying medical billing so that she can work from home, but right now her only income is a monthly disability check. ItÂ’s not enough to pay all the bills and buy food.

Help for Tamika comes from a food pantry served by Tarrant Area Food Bank. From this pantry, she is able to take home nutritious groceries for her family. Her situation is not isolated, but a broad local issue and a national concern.

Each year around 35 million Americans live in households that don't get enough to eat. Here in North Central Texas more than 500,000 children, parents, senior citizens and others face chronic hunger.

This is not just their problem. It's ours. In fact, it's a $90 billion problem. That's the annual tab we Americans bear for the direct and indirect societal costs of chronic hunger and its negative outcomes, according to a recently released study, The Economic Cost of Domestic Hunger. This report can be found at www.tafb.org.

The cost most damaging to our communities is the personal cost of hunger to a child or to families who cannot afford to feed their kids.

Tarrant Area Food Bank is on the frontlines of relieving the personal costs of hunger as it provides surplus food to hunger-relief charities in 13 counties of north central Texas. Since 1982, this 25-year-old regional institution has focused solely on leading the fight against hunger, and it canÂ’t do it without you.

Your help is especially needed during the summer when parents struggle to feed their children whose basic nutritional needs are not being met with school meals.

The food pantry can help Tamika because of the generosity of the community and the commercial food industry. Food drives by the community are always appreciated, whether they raise 20 pounds or more than 224,000 pounds as did this yearÂ’s one-day Stamp Out Hunger drive organized by the National Association of Letter Carriers. Notices of public food drives to which you and your family and friends can donate are posted on the Tarrant Area Food Bank Calendar at www.tafb.org.

NBC 5 encourages you to support Tarrant Area Food Bank to see that no one goes hungry. Please visit tafb.org today or call 817-332-9177 to find out how you can host a food drive, volunteer, or donate to this important cause. Join NBC 5 and Tarrant Area Food Bank in the Fight to End Hunger!

Fast Facts

Fewer children go hungry thanks to Tarrant Area Food Bank and its supporters:
More than one-third (35 percent) of the people served by Tarrant Area Food Bank and its network of partner agencies are children.

Many children must rely on subsidized meals in school districts within the 13 counties served by Tarrant Area Food Bank. Of the total school enrollment in those counties, 41 percent (203,000) of students qualify for free and reduced-cost national breakfast and lunch programs.

Tarrant Area Food Bank directly fills the gap that exists for such children during out-of-school times, when federal programs are unavailable, through Kids Cafes and other initiatives.