Bread Connection gala focuses on new location, opportunities to help

Apr. 14—Changes are afoot for the Bread Connection but the organization's mission remains the same, to feed and assist as many in need as possible.

With Johnson County's population growth booming and grocery prices rising, such needs continue to expand, Bread Connection board member Greg Harmon said.

"When [Bread Connection founders Randy and Becky Hightower] started this they were helping about 1,200 people a month," Harmon said. "Now it's more like 12,000 and the need just keeps growing. So it's important to us to be able to keep up with those needs."

To chose ends, several changes have or soon will come to pass. The name for one. The Bread Connection is now Johnson County Food Bank Your Bread Connection. A change, officials said, to better reflect the organization's growing span of coverage while at the same time retaining biblical references to Christ as the bread of life and his mission of service to others.

"Never expected it to grow as big or as fast as it has, but the needs are definitely there," Becky Hightower said. "So are the numbers of people and organizations we're dealing with and so the name change. We're actually covering four counties and 16 different cities now, which is a lot of driving."

The Johnson County Food Bank serves as a middleman in most cases, Harmon and Randy Hightower said.

"People think of food pantries, which is where you go to get food," Randy Hightower said. "We're not that. We get food donations from grocery stores and other organizations, which we then distribute to area food pantries as well as charitable and other organizations that help people in need."

Because the Johnson County Food Bank is volunteer and donation driven, help is always needed.

"This is a very giving community," board member Fernando Rodriguez said. "We've had a lot of wonderful people volunteer, donate and help out. But we're still trying to get word out. I think there's still many who don't know about our food bank or what we do who, if they did, would want to get involved or get their businesses involved."

In effort to raise awareness and funds, the Johnson County Food Bank Gala will be held 5:30 p.m. April 26 at the Cleburne Conference Center, 1501 W. Henderson St.

In addition to dinner, live entertainment and live and silent auctions, biblical scholar Byron Stinson will speak.

Tickets cost $150. Tables sponsorships — ranging from $1,000 to $7,500— are also available.

For information, call 817239-4547 or email thebreadconnection50@gmail.com.

New location

The Johnson County Food Bank will also soon have a new home.

"Randy and Becky started out in the garage of their home," Harmon said. "Then we got the current location on West Henderson Street. Well, we've outgrown that."

The new location, off of U.S. 67 in Cleburne, brings increased square footage and food storage capacity.

"We'll be able to get larger donations of food, which of course will allow us to help more people," Harmon said. "Donations we just don't have the space to handle in our current location."

Future plans include an additional warehouse at the new location in addition to a homeless shelter and a trade school."

For now, Johnson County Food Bank officials are hard at work preparing the new location for move in.

The plan for now is to keep the Henderson Street location open once they move into their new home, at least for the time being, Becky Hightower said.

The Johnson County Food Bank benefits food pantries at Rio Vista Baptist Church, Victory Family Church Burleson, Bethel Temple Cleburne, LIFT Keene, the East Cleburne Community Center as well as other churches and charitable organizations.

The food bank also benefits several organizations in neighboring counties.

"Our requirement is, is your stomach growling? Are your cabinets empty?" Becky Hightower said.

Need is great, however, both to help those in need and to meet the cost of the food bank's new center and upcoming plans.

"Because of inflation, population growth and needs we can hardly keep up with the numbers," Becky Hightower said. "We always need more donations and more volunteers."