Recipient Partner Spotlight - Neighborhood and Community Centers
November 2025- Keep Austin Fed volunteer Victoria Pennock delivers food from Wheatsville Food Co-op to South Austin Neighborhood Center.
2025- Keep Austin Fed receives a certificate of appreciation for our work with St. John’s Neighborhood Center.
2026- Staff at South Austin Neighborhood Center distribute food in the parking lot during the center’s temporary closure.
Roughly 5.3 million Texans will experience food insecurity in a given year. In Travis County specifically, about 200,000 of our neighbors will lack the proper nutrition needed to lead healthy, active lives.
In addition to the services provided by nonprofits like Keep Austin Fed, Austinites facing hunger can also receive food assistance from city and county resources. In 1974, the City of Austin established its first Neighborhood Center in east Austin. Neighborhood Centers, operated by Austin Public Health, serve as community hubs providing food, healthcare, and basic social services. Community Centers, run by Travis County’s Health and Human Services department, also offer food assistance, healthcare, and social services as well as clothing and public computers.
Keep Austin Fed began its partnership with Travis County’s Oak Hill Community Center in 2021. Less than a year later, Blackland Neighborhood Center also became a Keep Austin Fed partner. Today, Keep Austin Fed continues to provide weekly donations to Oak Hill Community Center as well as to four Neighborhood Centers: South Austin Neighborhood Center, Montopolis Neighborhood Center, St. John’s Neighborhood Center, and Blackland Neighborhood Center.
Keep Austin Fed connects our city and county partners with donations from grocery stores, ensuring that our neighbors have access to a variety of fresh food to meet their individual needs. Every week, Keep Austin Fed staff members or volunteers drop off meat, fresh produce, dairy, bread, prepared meals, and pantry staples to supplement the centers’ food pantries. “Since the soft launch of the Montopolis Food Pantry in 2021, Keep Austin Fed has been a vital partner in helping us provide healthier food options to our community,” said Ana Montiel, Program Manager at Austin Public Health. “Their ongoing support has allowed us to expand weekly services through a client-choice model, empowering families to select the foods that best support their health and well-being.”
“Keep Austin Fed has been an incredible partner in helping us meet the growing needs of our community,” added Justin Foster, Social Services Program Administrator at Travis County Oak Hill Community Center. “The food we receive is distributed directly to families and individuals facing food insecurity, ensuring they have access to fresh, nutritious options they might not otherwise be able to afford.” In 2025, Keep Austin Fed completed 470 food rescues to donate a total of 55,500 meals to the City of Austin’s Neighborhood Centers and Travis County’s Oak Hill Community Center.
For the South Austin Neighborhood Center, which is temporarily closed for repairs, Keep Austin Fed’s donations have also provided an opportunity to stay visible within the community. “During the closure, we have distributed Keep Austin Fed volunteer-delivered food every Tuesday in our parking lot to keep connected with our core clients and community members,” explained Jane Prince, Program Manager at South Austin Neighborhood Center. “This is a way for us to see our regular clients and remind them that we will re-open. Our partnership with Keep Austin Fed, your volunteers, and the two grocery stores that donate has been tremendously valuable.”
Because Neighborhood Centers receive donations from multiple sources, they occasionally end up with surplus food. To help ensure that all donations reach community members, Keep Austin Fed also picks up and redistributes food from our four city partners. After picking up the surplus, our staff members coordinate with our network of partners to give out the food as quickly as possible. In 2025, Keep Austin Fed picked up and distributed 14,000 pounds of surplus food from the City of Austin’s Neighborhood Centers.
At the core of their missions, both Neighborhood and Community Centers seek to help Austinites and their families thrive. Through our city and county partnerships, Keep Austin Fed provides crucial nutrition for our neighbors to lead fulfilling lives.“Beyond simply filling pantry shelves, this partnership allows us to respond quickly to urgent needs, reduce food waste, and provide a level of dignity and care that every community member deserves,” said Justin Foster. “The impact is felt daily in the lives of the clients we serve, and we are truly grateful for Keep Austin Fed’s continued support.”
Visit our website to learn more about Keep Austin Fed’s community partnerships or see our impact.