Episode 74: More Than a Food Pantry: How the South Plains Food Bank Feeds People and Futures

In this episode of Conservation Stories, Tillery Timmins-Sims sits down with Chase Head, Chief Development Officer of the South Plains Food Bank, to unpack what hunger really looks like across their 19-county service area. Chase shares his journey from cotton R&D and agribusiness into professional fundraising, and explains how the food bank leverages the national Feeding America network and its own buying power so that every donated dollar can provide roughly three meals.

They dig into the realities behind SNAP and TFAP, who actually needs help (often working families), and how recent USDA cuts and the government shutdown have created a “perfect storm” of higher demand and less federal support. Chase also highlights the Food Bank’s youth leadership program (formerly GRUB) and five-acre garden, where local teens gain agricultural, kitchen, and workplace skills while growing fresh produce that now goes directly to client families. Throughout, Tillery and Chase return to a central theme: community generosity—through financial support, partnership, and smarter systems—is essential to keeping neighbors fed and helping the next generation break cycles of poverty.