Taste Project Arlington, 200 N Cooper St, Arlington. TasteProject.org. 11am-2pm Wed-Sun.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is nominally in charge of helping farmers get food to hungry Americans. Last week, that agency gutted the nation’s food safety net with $1.6 billion in budget cuts. The Tarrant Area Food Bank (TAFB) detailed the cuts that affect the Local Food Purchase Assistance Agreement (LFPAA) and other programs that allow food banks to use surplus food and commodities to feed people. The loss of $4.2 million in local funding means a potential shortfall of 2.5 million meals for TAFB’s service area, which includes Tarrant, Johnson, and Hill counties, plus the counties of Bosque, Cook, Denton, Erath, Hamilton, Hood, Parker, Palo Pinto, Somervell, and Wise.
The USDA says the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPACA) used noncompetitive agreements to allow participating agencies to purchase food produced regionally from farmers and producers. The LFPACA was started by the previous presidential administration in a bid to improve food and agricultural supply-chain resilience post-COVID. Simply put, LFPACA allowed the purchase of food direct from the farmers and growers at market value. Food banks increased local food consumption of mainly produce, local producers got paid, and the supply chain was healthier for it.
TAFB’s agriculture hub can store 45 million pounds of produce a year, some of it from the LFPACA purchases, to put fresh fruit and veggies on the tables of the food insecure.
A USDA representative recently told The Hill that the LFPACA “no longer effectuates the goals of the agency.”
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins added, “I believe in President [Donald] Trump’s vision. He is bold and fearless and unequivocal on what he believes will bring greater prosperity to America.”
Photo by Laurie James
The current government’s rush to move quickly and break things means that locally, there’s a million-meal shortfall. The USDA also ranked Texas second in the nation in terms of the number of people who couldn’t afford food — and 90% of those adults are working, not on welfare. The trickle-down effect leaves uncertainty with TAFB’s local nonprofit partners, mostly smaller food pantries embedded in local community centers, churches like 4Saints & Friends Episcopal Food Pantry, and other sites where people without access to reliable transportation or the almost $3-per-gallon it costs to gas up a car can get assistance.
Feeding our nation’s hungry (primarily children, our elders, and the area’s working poor, some of whom are farmers, ranchers, and military families) should not be controversial. One in six Texans is food insecure. Most of the world’s religions talk about the imperative to feed the needy. Even the atheists are on board with the idea that if you have a little extra, you should share.
If you’re moved to help, TAFB Director and CEO Julie Butner offered a couple of the agency’s signature fundraising events and invited contributors to consider dollars over a food drive. It’s more cost effective for the TAFB to receive your donation in cash –– the agency can buy 50 meals with a $10 donation, and that creates uniform packages for the partnering food pantries and allows their clients the dignity of some preference choices when they go to the TAFB.
Almost lost in the ugly news for our food lifelines is the expansion of Fort Worth’s nonprofit Taste Project. Civil rights icon and soul singer Mavis Staples sang about “a land of plenty, where no child shall want for more / On a far celestial shore,” and Taste Project has been working to make that a reality in the Fort since 2012. Taste Project’s mission is akin to the that of the TAFB — that everyone, regardless of their income, should have access to healthy food. Both entities believe in feeding people with dignity, although Taste does this one meal at a time.
Taste launched an eatery slightly north of UTA earlier this month. Chef Jeff Williams and wife Julie Williams have created a friendly space that isn’t a food pantry. It’s a pay-what-you-can concept: If you can’t afford a meal, you still get a fantastic, seasonally rotating selection of fresh food, along with a beverage and dessert if you want it. A kids’ menu features a burger, mac ’n’ cheese, or chicken fingers. Monthly donations and contributions from diners who can afford to pay what they’d usually spend on the same kind of food help make up the difference.
Photo by Laurie James
Julie shared that the Arlington location has been running wide open this month, with an initial 1,000 meals served the first week and now close to 1,400 meals served over the five days the restaurant is open.
The Arlington spring menu is heavy on the veggie options, and Julie said that’s acknowledging both Lent and some food preferences from UTA students. Chilled asparagus vichyssoise and a strawberry salad share menu space with soba noodles (in a salad or in a broth bowl) and risotto primavera with shrimp (made vegetarian by eliminating the shellfish). There’s also the Oklahoma onion burger, a double-pattied beauty with caramelized onions on a brioche bun.
When I dined this past weekend, the strawberry salad with pecans, goat cheese, and spinach was divine, and the risotto with five perfectly grilled shrimp, crunchy leeks, artichoke slivers, and peas was absolutely springtime on a creamy, savory plate.
Taste Project takes no food from the TAFB. All supplies are purchased, and that creates certain constraints in the storage and use of the items.
Taste Project’s commitment to stunning cuisine hasn’t been lost on the Fort Worth food community. Chef Williams makes his inaugural appearance next week at the Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival, at Rise + Dine on Sat, Apr 5. His contribution: spring toast with whipped goat cheese and pea puree on sourdough toast, topped with a cured egg and pea shoots. Sounds totally appropriate for the brunch event.
And Julie doubled down on TAFB CEO Butner’s request for donations. Julie said three in four meals that Taste provides in Fort Worth are subsidized. The Williamses and their team count on diners who are able to pay for meals to aid the 75% of people who need a little help. Don’t feel that you’re “taking up a space for someone who needs a meal,” Julie said. Stop by the lovely Arlington restaurant for lunch — it’s one of the tastiest ways you can do good.
Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival’s Rise + Dine
Noon-2:30pm Sat, Apr 5, at Heart of the Ranch at Clearfork, 5000 Clearfork Main St, Fort Worth. $65 at FWFWF.ticketsauce.com.
Photo by Laurie James
In case you and the crew are looking to check out any of the bars or restaurants that advertised with us in Zest 2025, we’ve alphabetized them in a handy, dandy section. Welcome to The Zest List.
