“I lost my job a month ago and had to come for help because I have two kids,” she says in Spanish while waiting for her weekly provision of food.
Cisneros is part of a growing number of Texans in need of food assistance. About 9 million households in Texas are at risk of going hungry, according to a recent report by the Department of Agriculture, putting Texas's prevalence of food insecurity higher than every state besides Mississippi.
The situation is especially dire among Latinos and those who live closer to the Mexican border. The Texas Food Bank Network (TFBN), a coalition of 19 food banks serving more than 3 million families, reported that 44 percent of its food applicants in 2010 were Hispanic.
