By Jennifer Dorsett
Field Editor
When the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the in-person plans for the Western Rice Belt Production Conference, members of the conference planning committee found a way to turn unused conference funds into food for the hungry.
“The conference committee generates funds from donations and sponsorships that we sell to the different industries that support the rice industry, whether it’s our production inputs or the marketing or handling of our rice. We use those funds to provide a meal and a destination for our conferences every January,” said Daniel Berglund, a rice farmer and Wharton County Farm Bureau member. “We had to go virtual this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so we had all these funds available for other uses. We had the idea that we could use those funds to help those that are less fortunate than us at this time.”
Food insecurity continues to grow, and there is an unprecedented demand for food relief and assistance.
“Rice is a significant commodity grown in this part of Southeast Texas. It’s a small area but significant to local communities, and we just wanted to send some rice from this area down here, back upriver to the Austin area and help out the food banks there,” he said. “This is what we felt we could do budgetarily right now, and if we can do more in the spring, we would like do some more to help out.”
The Western Rice Belt Production Conference planning committee donated 11,000 pounds of rice to the Central Texas Food Bank, which is headquartered in Austin.
The Western Rice Belt Conference Committee consists of rice farmers from Wharton, Matagorda and Colorado counties, which comprise the Texas Rice Belt, as well as Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agents from these counties. Other committee members include Tommy Turner, Texas Rice Council president.
“In my role as president of Texas Rice Council, I’d worked with some of the mills earlier in the spring on getting donations into the Houston area. So, I had some experience in contacting people at the various mills. We have five mills here in Texas, and they do a great job of milling Texas rice and getting it out there to the consumers. I knew I could pick up that ball and run with it to source the rice,” Turner said. “The CEO of U.S. Rice Producers Association, Dwight Roberts, lives in the Austin area, so when Daniel said, ‘I think we ought to do this donation into the Central Texas Food Bank in Austin,’ Dwight said he knew some folks there and could make some calls. Dwight worked on the logistics part of it, and we put this all together in about five days.”
Typically, an order is placed at a mill a few weeks prior to ensure enough rice is available. The mill will package it according to the customer’s needs. Shipping is then arranged.
It’s a balance of having the right product at the right price, right place and right time.
“[When we were calling mills] we said, ‘Well, we’re just trying to make a donation, and we want to move quickly on this, get it before Christmas,’” Turner said. “We had to work with the people at the mills to see if we could somehow shorten that timeframe.”
All the mills Turner called wanted to help, but the timing didn’t work for them. The situation seemed uncertain, but one mill was able to fulfill the urgent request.
“Luckily, Riviana Foods in Freeport had some rice available just in case a customer ordered some. And it was Texas rice, the kind of rice we wanted to send up to Austin,” he said.
Restrictions on visitors because of COVID-19 safety protocols prevented the committee from seeing the rice packaged or delivered to the Central Texas Food Bank. But Turner noted they were proud of the effort and how everyone pulled together to make the delivery happen.
“I think we put the order in on Thursday evening, and Riviana was able to have the order sourced by Monday, ready to go. And the food bank, they have a great system of getting trucks where they need to, to pick up food and get it to their warehouse,” he said. They were able to get down there and pick up the rice, and they had it in Austin by Tuesday.”
Just in time for Christmas food distributions to needy families.
“One of the great things about rice is, once it’s packaged, it’s very shelf-stable, and also rice is very adaptable,” Turner said. “It’s a great pallet to build any dish upon. We think it’s a great choice to put into a food bank, to distribute to people in time of need, because it’s also very nutritious, as well.”
The members of the planning committee helped hungry families with the donated rice and hope to make another donation in the spring, Berglund said.
“The Central Texas Food Bank, along with all food banks in our nation, are running short, and we do need those that have the funds or the ability to do so to donate at this time, more than ever before,” he said. “They were very excited to get it. It came at a very opportune time. But I’d like to remind people that usually after the Christmas holidays, donations fall off for food banks and other such facilities. So, everyone needs to reevaluate what they can do to help at that time.”
For now, he’s proud to have grown the food right down the road that will go to nourish those in need.
“When I see the news articles on TV about the food banks and people getting what they need there for survival, I see them walking out with a lot of different commodities in their hands,” Berglund said. “And as a rice farmer, I really want to see them walking out with a bag of rice, so we’re going to do what we can to make that happen.”