A family can be working, paying bills, and still not know how they’re going to afford groceries.
That is one of the realities behind the work of Central Texas Food Bank. The people who need help include military families, college students, older adults, and parents trying to keep food on the table for their children. Their circumstances may be different, but the next meal still has to come from somewhere.
Hannah Beall understands that uncertainty from both sides.
Growing up, her family relied on food assistance. She remembers stretching ingredients, cooking meals, and waiting for a grocery checkout line where nobody would recognize her using a Lone Star Card. Her family needed help. Being seen needing it was something she wanted to avoid.
Today, Hannah is the Garden Manager at Central Texas Food Bank, helping grow fresh produce for people facing circumstances she remembers.
In the chair with Tab Salsman, she opens a window into an organization whose work reaches far beyond collecting canned goods. Through its network across 21 Central Texas counties, the food bank connects neighbors with groceries, rescues food that might otherwise be discarded, helps people navigate benefits, and teaches families how to turn available ingredients into meals.
At its on-site market, people can choose food their families will actually eat. Fresh vegetables from Hannah’s farm can be harvested that morning and taken home that day. Cooking demonstrations help make an unfamiliar ingredient feel like something worth bringing into the kitchen.
For someone who remembers the discomfort of asking for help, those details carry weight. Having choices. Being welcomed. Leaving with food you know how to prepare.
Hannah’s childhood gives her a personal connection to the families this work supports—and to the difference that support could have made when she was younger. Growing food to give away lets her help people who are standing where she once stood.
The conversation also brings the work within reach: volunteering, helping distribute groceries, spending a morning on the farm, or finding a nearby food resource for someone who needs it.
How many people around us are struggling to buy food without ever saying a word?
Central Texas Food Bank works to reach those neighbors. Hannah helps grow what they take home, carrying a memory of what it felt like to need it herself.
Follow along with Tab Salsman and Hannah Beall as they talk about Central Texas Food Bank, growing nourishing food, and the personal experiences behind giving back.
Show full transcript
Transcribed from the source recording. Timestamps may differ from the edited video.
Hannah Beall
Our name is Central Texas Food Bank. Surprisingly, a lot of our people who are most in need are military families. There's college students, and then of course, like, children. So one in four children in our service area are food... They don't know where their next meal is coming from, which is very dismal.
Hannah Beall
One in five adults and older adults are also food insecure
Tab Salsman
Thank you so much for doing this, Hannah. Well, you work for a c- a place, I've seen it. Uh, it's a huge building in Texas. I don't know about it. It's, um... And so instead of, like, looking for it, and then I- you made a post that Ryan from GeoSims had, had shared, and I was like, "Well, what is this all about?" 'Cause I, I'm always interested in farmers.
Tab Salsman
And you're, like, farmer adjacent is, like, how I, I have it in my mind. But this is where you're gonna, like, tell me how wrong I am- Yeah ... on all of this. So tell me. Tell me about Hannah.
Hannah Beall
Hi. Well, I'm Hannah Beall, and I am the manager of the urban farm at Central Texas Food Bank. A lot of people, first of all, don't know that there is a Central Texas Food Bank, but they also don't know that there's a one-acre growing space on site at our building.
Tab Salsman
Wait, there's, there's a... Is that inside or offsite? 'Cause I've never... Wait. You can't see it from the street. Is it behind? If
Hannah Beall
you are stuck at the light at Burlison- Yeah ... and Metropolis long enough, you'll see a field with about 25 rows. Um, it's about thir- a third of an acre, and we grow row crops right there, right outside the building.
Tab Salsman
Whoa.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
I, I never I never knew that. That's awesome. Okay, cool. So you guys can grow food at the Central Texas Food Bank.
Hannah Beall
Yes.
Tab Salsman
What, what is it that the Central, C- Central Texas Food Bank does?
Hannah Beall
Well, our mission is to provide nourishing food to Central Texans. Um, we lead advocacy efforts for hunger and poverty issues.
Hannah Beall
Um, and we transform lives through our programs, our, um, educational opportunities, and innovative solutions. Um, my part of that is the farm program. Um, we do education, we have volunteer groups out, and we just serve as an example of what you can grow on a small urban space.
Tab Salsman
That's really cool. Mm-hmm. And it feels like ever since 2020, I feel like more people are moving to these, like, remote areas, and they're, like, trying to get, like, a couple acres and doing some homesteading.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm.
Tab Salsman
And I think there's this idea of what it looks like, and then there's, like, this reality of actually taking on more than what you could handle. 'Cause I know some people are like, "Oh, we're gonna get some goats. We're gonna get some chickens. We're gonna get a cow or two." And then before you know it, they're like, "I am up so early doing this, and then doing..."
Tab Salsman
And then the... It's like it became a full-time job versus a, uh, like a fun hobby for them and their family.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Um, but that's not farming, uh, in the sense that how you guys are farming. You're not farming with livestock, you're doing it with plants.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Uh, what are the plants that you guys grow?
Hannah Beall
Um, we're essentially growing as if we're a diversified market garden, which is what my background is in.
Hannah Beall
Um, so we're growing what you see at the farmers market. We're growing the seasonal vegetables. Um, we just planted beets, carrots, radish, broccoli, Swiss chard this week.
Tab Salsman
Okay.
Hannah Beall
Um, but we're still harvesting some of the summer crops like jalapenos, shishitos, um, Armenian cucumbers, basil, and butternut squash.
Hannah Beall
So we have, um, throughout the year I've counted, we'll grow up to, like, 60 varieties of plants. Um, whether that be herbs, fruits, vegetables. Um, so it's very diverse. Um, and it's really, like I said, a good example of, like, what you can grow and when. So when people come to the food bank, they can see, oh. A lot of people are c- coming to volunteer, and they just moved to Austin, and they have no clue about the seasons here and when to grow things.
Hannah Beall
'Cause in other parts of the country, it's, like, completely opposite or way earlier or later. So they come and they're like, "Oh, I can plant that now? Cool. Like, I'm gonna go home and do that."
Tab Salsman
Well, I mean, the thing that I'm wondering is, like, I... My biggest question is why would somebody go to the Central Texas Food Bank?
Tab Salsman
Like, what's the, the draw- Okay Getting out of your car and going to the building. But I wanna do that over the haircut because- Yeah ... um, I feel like we'll be talking the whole time. Mm-hmm. And then you still won't have your hair cut. Yeah, true. And, you know, we smooth it
Hannah Beall
out. I do have a lot of this, so
Tab Salsman
Yeah, and we smooth your hair out actually- Yeah
Tab Salsman
beforehand 'cause the blow-dryer- I
Hannah Beall
feel like I'm having a Disney princess moment.
Tab Salsman
Why not, right? And then, um, yeah, and real quick, so you just told me that there's, like, a little bit of, like, a, a rough spot back here. So-
Hannah Beall
Yeah ...
Tab Salsman
the goal is to keep it long, keep it flowy, and you usually wear your hair naturally air-dried because you're kinda, like, low-maintenance.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm.
Tab Salsman
Wake up, let it air-dry, put your hat on.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
You're out doing your, your-
Hannah Beall
Yeah ...
Tab Salsman
fielding.
Hannah Beall
Yeah. Single mom, um, lots of hobbies and work, and I do not wanna spend any more time in the, in the bathroom getting ready than I need to.
Tab Salsman
Yeah. Air-dry or French braid is what I got from- Mm-hmm ... our consultation.
Tab Salsman
Cool. Yeah. So let me put the cape on you, and then, uh, we'll start cutting.
Hannah Beall
Awesome.
Tab Salsman
All right, so let's start off with why Why does, what is... Okay, so it provides a demonstration- ... of what you can go through and do in a small amount of acreage or space to grow food- Mm-hmm ... which I think is awesome. We also just recently went through this thing where every time you opened up an app that was a news, it was like this new food, this new thing was recalled.
Tab Salsman
Everything from blueberries, strawberries, and then it started getting into a whole bunch of other stuff, and it was a, to me it was a really great reminder that farmers markets are not these mass-processed things. Mm-hmm. Most likely they're also low on the, uh, herbicides and all this, if you're going organic or if you're not going the conventional route of how most things are farmed.
Tab Salsman
And then, so, like, that's really cool that it shows that. But what, who are the people that, does it serve people? Mm. Or is it just really just an example of, like, what you could do, you know, as somebody who just wants to- Mm-hmm ... grow their own crops or their own food? Because we had a hydroponic tower, one of those, uh, stacked ones in our house, and it was awesome, but I'm not gonna lie-
Tab Salsman
some of those plants grow way too fast. Yeah. We couldn't eat all of them.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
And then the other thing is we had, um, some sort of, like, bug infestation started eating it and we always had to trash the whole- Yeah ... the whole crops. So who, who does the Texas, Cen- Central Texas Food Bank serve?
Hannah Beall
So we serve 21 counties in Central Texas.
Hannah Beall
That's why our name is Central Texas Food Bank. It used to be called Capital Area Food Bank, but that didn't really, um, emphasize our s- the stretch and, like, the amount of territory that we cover.
Tab Salsman
Okay.
Hannah Beall
So they changed the name around the time we built this new building, which is almost 10 years old now, so we still call it new, but, um, if you talk to any old Austinites, they are like, "Oh, Capital Area Food Bank, it's in South Austin," and, like, it used to be off South Congress or something.
Hannah Beall
Um, so this is still new in the realm of Austin. Um, so we serve all the way up to Waco, um, down to, like, Blanco County, um, pretty much where San Antonio Food Bank starts to pick up on their territory.
Tab Salsman
So they have their own?
Hannah Beall
Yeah. Okay. So San Antonio, there are I think five big food banks, something like that, in Texas.
Hannah Beall
So there's Houston, there's the northern, like, DFW area, Tarrant County, um, and then San Antonio is a big one, and they cover a lot of the neighboring, um, counties along where we stop serving. Um, so that's about, that's over 600,000 food insecure people that we serve in a year in our territory.
Tab Salsman
So it's individuals who are food insecure.
Tab Salsman
Yeah. For somebody who's never heard that phrase, which I feel like it's kinda hard to avoid that phrase, but I think there's a lot of phrases individuals use- Mm-hmm ... or you'll hear in the news, and I think we have an idea- Yeah ... of what that means, but we don't really understand, like, what that definition is.
Hannah Beall
Yeah. So you'd be surprised. A lot of people I've talked to who have a conception about what, who, who, the type of people are coming to a food bank, they think it's mostly unhoused, um, minorities. They have all these assumptions. But, um, surprisingly, a lot of our people who are most in need are military families.
Hannah Beall
Um, there's college students. Um, and then of course, like, children. So one in four children in our service area are food ... They don't know where their next meal is coming from, which is very dismal. Um, one in five adults and older adults are also food insecure in our service area.
Tab Salsman
It's surprising to me that the military's food insecure.
Tab Salsman
Yeah. I, I, I feel like every time I hear how they, they always get the short end of the stick, and the food commissaries and all that, you'd think there would be more, but there, but there isn't.
Hannah Beall
Mm-mm.
Tab Salsman
That's insane.
Hannah Beall
Yeah. We've, um, done a lot of work in Killeen, and done... I think we have, like, a, a pantry there that we provide food to, and we found that there was so much need in our northern territories that we built a second location in Waco.
Hannah Beall
Um, so we have now a 60,000 square foot food bank.
Tab Salsman
60,000- And- ... square feet is huge ...
Hannah Beall
in Waco. The one in Austin is twice that size- Wow ... so about 130, um, square feet.
Tab Salsman
Um- Now, to put this for somebody who doesn't maybe know how big this is I think the average size of a Costco is about 60 to 100,000 probably square feet.
Hannah Beall
That seems right, yeah. Yeah.
Tab Salsman
So h-
Hannah Beall
we're- I was thinking of like a, a regular- Like a Super- ... H-E-B would be like on the small side of 60.
Tab Salsman
Yeah. I'm thinking if you're not in Texas, Costco or like a- Yeah ... Super Walmart.
Hannah Beall
Yeah, one of those big ones. Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Is like, the Super Walmart or a Costco. Your average Costco is probably somewhere in that vicinity.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm.
Tab Salsman
Some of them are bigger, some of them- Yeah ... smaller. But the... Yeah, good. I'm just trying to think of-
Hannah Beall
Yeah, how to- 'Cause
Tab Salsman
pe- 'cause people who don't know what H-E-B is, don't understand-
Hannah Beall
True,
Tab Salsman
true ... go, "What is H-E-B?" I forget. I know. Well, you're a native Texan. Native Texan. You know?
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
I didn't know what the H-E-B was.
Tab Salsman
I'm like, "Can we go find a Ralphs or a Vons?" Mm-hmm. 'Cause I'm from California- Yeah ... so I'm like, "Where is this?" The only ones I recognized was like a Trader Joe's, which there's two of, and then, um, Whole Foods.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
And then I found Central Market- Mm-hmm ... and I was like, "Oh."
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Yeah.
Hannah Beall
H-E-B's lovely daughter.
Tab Salsman
Yeah, yeah. Exact- I, again, I didn't know that. I just was, I had never seen produce displa- displayed on ice like that before.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
And I'm like, "Is that what I'm paying for, the ice-
Hannah Beall
Yeah ...
Tab Salsman
and the display?"
Hannah Beall
A little extra for the, the quality.
Tab Salsman
So these individuals who are, um, food insecure, you mentioned several people, uh, elderly, you mentioned-
Tab Salsman
college students, military, um- Is this something that they have access to this food? Is it, like, at a discounted rate? Is it subsidized? Is it free? Do they have, like, a card where they're able to, like... Like, how does somebody, how do these people apply for it?
Hannah Beall
Yeah. So our main location is more of a hub that, um, if you think about it as, like, the main headquarters of these grocery stores that then send out food to the smaller, the actual grocery stores that people go to.
Hannah Beall
Okay. Um, that's kinda how I think of it. So we are more of a distribution center to our, like, 250 partner agencies that we work with throughout our service area. So the goal is to, for people to really not come to the food bank, but to go to the s- the partner agencies- Okay ... and the resources that are closer to their home- Yeah
Hannah Beall
and in their neighborhood.
Tab Salsman
Yeah.
Hannah Beall
Um, but we found that, uh, people were coming to the food bank looking for food, our food bank. Um, so a few year- years ago then, they built out a onsite pantry which we call a market, because we allow our neighbors to come in and shop the market as if, um, they're at a store, and that gives some more dignity.
Hannah Beall
It's free. They don't pay for the food, but they- Okay ... like, get to come in and have, like, choose things that they're actually gonna eat and maybe are culturally relevant to them, instead of us giving them a box of food that they d- Random food ... they might not use. Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Like, ta-da-
Hannah Beall
It might just- ... mystery meal Yeah
Hannah Beall
you know? It might just get dropped on the curb or something. So, um, that has been great, 'cause we did, we were having to turn people away because we were just more of a distribution center.
Tab Salsman
Mm-hmm.
Hannah Beall
Um, but we still, we, uh, when people come to the food bank, we direct them to our benefits and emergency services team to help them sign up for SNAP or Medicare, Medicaid, anything, any of the government, um, benefits that may be a little more challenging to navigate.
Tab Salsman
Yeah.
Hannah Beall
Um, so that's, like, the first stop, and then they can come and shop the market, and that's where our onsite farm really shines. We try to keep the market well-stocked with fresh, like, harvested that morning usually, um, produce, and that really helps Kind of like feed our, we know that we're, like, feeding our closest neighbors that way-
Tab Salsman
Yeah
Hannah Beall
with our, our farm.
Tab Salsman
Now, are, are these things, is almost everything that is part of this whole org, I guess I'm gonna say. Is it all things that are grown, or is it also stuff that has been packaged and processed? Like, could I get pasta there?
Hannah Beall
Yeah. So we, we get food through a variety of sources. So we have a whole team that works with retail businesses around town-
Tab Salsman
Okay
Hannah Beall
to do food rescue. Um, so that's- What, what's
Tab Salsman
food rescue?
Hannah Beall
That is where, like, a grocery store is pulling their almost expired things off the shelf, and they might just be throwing it away. Um, we make sure that we have, um, like a direct connection with those so that they send it to us every time.
Tab Salsman
Is that, is that something that they're required to do, or is that something they feel obligated to do?
Hannah Beall
The businesses?
Tab Salsman
Yes.
Hannah Beall
I think they are not required, um, as far as I know. Would that change things? I think that that could, yeah.
Tab Salsman
Not that, like, I want more government oversight on things- Yeah ... but, like, I figure, like, if something's gonna expire soon-
Hannah Beall
Yeah ...
Tab Salsman
why not give it to, to the chance to be eaten, right?
Tab Salsman
Yeah. I always think of the movie Speed. Remember the movie Speed- Mm-hmm ... with Keanu? Mm-hmm. And he's talking about the guy with the bomb. He's like, "A bomb is meant to explode." And I always think about that, like that's, like you, you stopped its whole goal and purpose in life. Yeah. I'm like, food is meant to be eaten.
Tab Salsman
It
Hannah Beall
is, yeah.
Tab Salsman
And so you're preventing its- It- ... whole purpose, which is to be consumed, by just throwing it in the trash. Mm-hmm. That's interesting.
Hannah Beall
Yeah. So they also work with farmers, um, to get any kind of, like, blemished or, you know, not market grade fruits and vegetables, 'cause we do have, um, like a big part of our mission is to increase the amount of fresh food that we provide to our neighbors.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm. A lot of people think of food bank food, and they think immediately of canned, dry, you know, food drives and just shelf stable things and government cheese, and that's not, like we do provide all those things, but on top of that, we're also trying to make a big emphasis on the fresh fruits and vegetables.
Tab Salsman
All right. Here's a question You have all this fresh food, and you have all these in-season things. Mm-hmm. Um, I've read interviews with RFK Jr. talking about how people just have forgotten how to cook. Mm-hmm. And that we just don't know how to cook. And we cook all of our meals here at home. We have a mill, so we buy wheat berries.
Tab Salsman
Mm-hmm. We mill our own wheat. Wow. We, we, we... We're a little extra- Yeah ... if you will. Same. Um, yeah.
Hannah Beall
I, yeah. Yeah. I do a lot of the, the at home stuff, but that's not the common, uh-
Tab Salsman
It's not the common thing.
Hannah Beall
Mm-mm.
Tab Salsman
And people are like, "Wow, you make your own ice cream from scratch?" I'm like, "Yeah, I, I... We make everything."
Tab Salsman
Basically, 'cause we have a bunch of things we just wanna prevent from consuming.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Gums, xanthan gum, guar gum- Yeah, all the added
Hannah Beall
junk ... whatever. Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Exactly. All the things that you would never find if you're making it naturally, right? Um, by the way, most creams all have a thickening agent.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm.
Tab Salsman
There's only been two I can find. One of them is Milk King, which you can only get- Yeah ... either at Whole Foods or Central Market.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm.
Tab Salsman
And I can't remember the other one, but you can get that one at Whole Foods, and you cannot find it, uh... Sometimes you get it at Central Market. But it's the only two that don't have a thickener- Yeah
Tab Salsman
which is a whole nother
Hannah Beall
thing. Yeah, 'cause people don't wanna see their milk separated, 'cause they're so used to seeing just, like, regular homogenized milk.
Tab Salsman
Yeah.
Hannah Beall
Um, and to see it in its natural form, which it does separate naturally,
Tab Salsman
so- Yeah, and in the cream too. It's like- So
Hannah Beall
people don't wanna see
Tab Salsman
that
Tab Salsman
'cause it cr- the cream's not thick enough- Yeah ... so they need to make it thicker. I'm like, "Oh, my God."
Hannah Beall
And they want low fat, but they don't want it... They want it to be thick, so...
Tab Salsman
Ugh. I'm like, the fat's good for you. So, um- The question I have is, and this has always been like my, my big question, so I'm so glad you're here and you brought me here.
Tab Salsman
'Cause like, again, I'm not trying to put you under the microscope and grill you. 'Cause like this thing is that if you have access to fresh, healthy food options, right?
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm.
Tab Salsman
Do the individuals know what to do with this if, as a nation, according to our HHS, is saying that we have a nation of people who just don't know how to cook anymore, right?
Tab Salsman
Uh, I'm just gonna use our current person who's talking about it. If people don't know how to cook, then how can they... I mean, are just eating turnips like an apple? Or are they learning how to like roast these- ... and turn them into-
Hannah Beall
Yeah ...
Tab Salsman
other stuff?
Hannah Beall
Yeah, we definitely handle that too. Okay. So we have a whole team, um, called the Community Nutrition Team.
Tab Salsman
All right.
Hannah Beall
And they go out to various partner agencies, to schools, to our mobile distributions, um, and they, their job is to do like nutrition and cooking classes. So people get to experience like using all these fresh fruits. They get to taste it, fresh fruits and vegetables. They get to taste them, get to go home with recipes.
Hannah Beall
They're, they incorporate a lot of the, like shelf-stable goods- Mm-hmm ... into the recipes, which is great, 'cause then the, the neighbors can like go home and make a meal off of that recipe, basically off, out of what they got that day. Um, and they're all very, you know, accessible foods, and nutritious, and it has all the nutrition facts and everything.
Hannah Beall
We have it... Most of them are, like, printed bilingual. It's j- it's a really wonderful, um, part of our organization, and I work closely with that team. We do a monthly, like, farm-to-market sample day in our market. Mm-hmm. So I pick a vegetable that is just in season and abundant that month, and I work with Tanvi, who's our lovely, um, community nutrition team member, and she used to work for some really great restaurants in town, so she makes the most amazing food, um, but makes it very approachable and easy to understand.
Hannah Beall
Um, so she makes a recipe with whatever vegetable. So, like, last month it was Armenian cucumbers,
Tab Salsman
um- I wouldn't even know. I don't even eat cucumbers.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
So I wouldn't even know what to do.
Hannah Beall
Yeah. So she makes a recipe. We film all of that, and we make, like, a reel to put out on our Instagram, social media.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm. Um, and then she sets up in the market that day, and we have, like, the produce in its raw form just, like, on display, and then she's sampling the dish that she made so that clients and neighbors, as they come in, can, um, you know, take home this very strange... Like, the Armenian cuc- cucumber can sometimes be, like, the size- Huge
Hannah Beall
of my leg.
Tab Salsman
Wow.
Hannah Beall
And, um, it looks kind of more like a gourd, and it is a little odd, but it tastes wonderful. It's crunchier than any regular cucumber. Um, it doesn't make you burp or have any of the strange, like, odd flavor that cucumber can sometimes have. So it's... Once you taste it, it's a easy sell.
Tab Salsman
Really?
Hannah Beall
But, but there's definitely, um, a learning curve and some education around introducing these, like, less, um, familiar foods. But I try to keep some of those things on the crop plan because I think we need to be growing the things that grow well in Texas, even if they're less familiar. So this cucumber can keep growing through the heat of the summer as long as it's watered.
Hannah Beall
Um, unlike the more, um, like, grocery store variety cucumbers- Mm-hmm ... need some, like, special greenhouse, shade, or they just stop growing. They stop fruiting in the heat. So
Tab Salsman
it's- The, uh... I never knew there was an Armenian cucumber. But it was like, "There's eggplant," and I remember buying something. This cookbook I have, it's like, "We need Persian eggplant."
Tab Salsman
I was like, "What?" "There's a Persian eggplant?" Um, it was a really cool book. It's called, uh, Two Dudes, One Pan, and they're, they had- They're these, uh, chef guys, and they have an amazing restaurant in LA called Animal. So heavy meat focused. Mm. You could not change anything on the menu- Mm ... at all. Yeah. Like, it said, "We politely decline any and all substitutions-" Substitutions
Tab Salsman
modifications." And for my friend Spencer, who is a chef, executive chef out here, um, I was really appreciative of that, and he put it in haircutting terms. He said, you know, "Imagine, uh, somebody wants a bob." I go, "Okay." He goes, "But they want a bob not here. They want it here." Mm-hmm. I go, "Well, that's not a bob."
Tab Salsman
He goes, "And that's what people do to food." Mm. They make so many changes and they go, "This is disgusting. I hate this restaurant." That's not good. I goes, "Well, you- Yeah ... we, we would have never put that on the menu." Mm-hmm. And so it always made me think about that. Now, when you do these demos here at the, at the food bank, right, this is, this is happening only at the one in Austin, or are these demonstrations happening at all the different distribution centers?
Hannah Beall
They're going all over the place. It kind of varies by time of year. Um, they don't do a whole lot at the food bank except for the market, um, our, like, sample day once a month.
Tab Salsman
Okay.
Hannah Beall
Um, they'll do occasional other, like, one-off events at the food bank, but otherwise, um, our nutrition coordinators are going out to sites, like our, our partner sites, to teach classes.
Tab Salsman
Now-
Hannah Beall
Sometimes it's retirement homes-
Tab Salsman
Yeah ...
Hannah Beall
schools.
Tab Salsman
I mean, I- Since I, I'm not, you know, I don't, my kids aren't in high school. They're, they're, they're seven and nine. Um, is high school still doing like a home ec? 'Cause that was like my favorite thing when I was in middle school- Mm-hmm ... was I now get to learn how to make some food, 'cause I was always interested in it.
Tab Salsman
And then in, uh, high school they stopped doing the home ec thing. Mm. I was really bummed. They kept automotive. They got rid of the food thing.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Is that, um, is that something that is still h- like not happening or is that happening? 'Cause I don't know. I didn't go to school here
Hannah Beall
in Texas. I think it varies.
Hannah Beall
Um, I know it was still happening back in my day, um- That's true ... 'cause my sister did it, but I didn't because I was already cooking meals for my family at age eight. So- Sure ... uh, I was like, "Yeah, you need to learn that, but I don't." Um, but we actually had a class come out last year to tour the food bank and, um, they came out and, um, had a garden tour with me, and they, we did like a cooking demo outside using fresh veggies.
Hannah Beall
And they were from, I think, Goldthwaite or Gatesville. I get those two towns mixed up 'cause they're close by to each other and-
Tab Salsman
I, I get that way.
Hannah Beall
Now- ... the Gs.
Tab Salsman
I do it with Lakeway and Westlake.
Hannah Beall
Oh,
Tab Salsman
yeah, that's- Because they both have lakes.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
And they're both apparently obsessed with football. So-
Hannah Beall
And they're not that far apart, yeah
Tab Salsman
they're not, and they're right next to each other, and people are like, "You ever seen Friday Night Lights?" And I'm like-
Hannah Beall
I'm sure they get very upset when you mix
Tab Salsman
them up. They do. I've, I've, I've seen the look of disgust, like they just ate- Oh ... like a lemon or something. And, um- Yeah ... I'm like, "What? I don't know.
Tab Salsman
They're, you're both on the west side. I have no idea."
Hannah Beall
Yeah. I think it was Gatesville. We'll go with that. Okay. But they brought their high school, um, culinary class out is what they called it. I don't think they call it home ec anymore.
Tab Salsman
Okay.
Hannah Beall
Um, so they brought the culinary class out and it was really wonderful, and the kids were way more engaged and excited and asking questions than I expected.
Hannah Beall
Um, we actually spent, I think, an hour and a half on the tour that was supposed to be like 45 minutes. Which is great 'cause they were trying things and harvesting and, like, wanting to taste everything, and it was just wonderful. '
Tab Salsman
Cause I know there's a, uh, a r- over at the Del Valle High School- Mm-hmm ... they have a pretty...
Tab Salsman
It looks almost like you're in some sort of, like, community college. They had, like, a full-on restaurant.
Hannah Beall
Wow.
Tab Salsman
I was like, "Whoa." It was great. I mean, you could graduate high school there and already have your certification in phlebotomy. You could be basically graduating and have your, all your licensing to be a welder.
Hannah Beall
Wow.
Tab Salsman
Like, they're tr- they're, they're more trade-focused, I think. Mm-hmm. Which now in this wonderful world of AI, having a trade is a really great thing to have. It is. Some sort of physical skill- Yes ... that can't be replaced, at least not yet by robots.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm.
Tab Salsman
Um, but that's interesting. And so how do... So is, how is this whole thing funded?
Tab Salsman
Like, who, who, who funds this? Is this a, uh, is this on the docket for the state? Is this, uh, private? What's going on?
Hannah Beall
Well, luckily we have a diverse funding stream because the, you know, last few years the government has sometimes not been great at providing for these kind of organizations. Mm-hmm. But, um, we do get some government grants and some of the USDA, um, funding for our work.
Hannah Beall
We have some city funding and partnerships, but the majority of our, um, our fundraising comes from our community members, so that's really cool. We've seen, like, them, the community really step up in times of need when we're, um, experiencing disasters, um, like the winter storm and the government shutdown, which was disastrous in some ways.
Hannah Beall
Yeah. Um, the community really showed up, and that's how we were able to still provide food while, you know, the government spigot was cut off for so long. Nice. Um, and then we have, you know, some big companies. H-E-B is a really great, um, to bring them up again. H-E-B is wonderful. They- They're
Tab Salsman
better than FEMA.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Like, like, literally I had, I had a client years ago, she, when I lived in California, and she was from Houston, and she goes, "Oh, I love H-E-B." She goes, when she found out I was moving here, and, uh, she goes, "Let me just tell you, they're better than FEMA." She's like, "FEMA took weeks to get everybody-" Yeah
Tab Salsman
there." She goes- No,
Hannah Beall
H-E-B ...
Tab Salsman
she goes, "When hurricane whatever came through," she's like, "H-E-B was there within hours." Mm-hmm. And I was like, "All right. This is great. Good to know."
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Um, all right, I'm gonna throw something out here. You can tell me if it's a dumb idea. You could probably get H-E-B to sponsor this, by the way.
Hannah Beall
Ooh.
Tab Salsman
Fundraising.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Austin has so many great chefs.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm.
Tab Salsman
And you have, like, this Armenian cu- cucumber, which made me think of Iron Chef.
Hannah Beall
Oh, yeah.
Tab Salsman
What about selling tickets to some fundraising thing where you get these amazing chefs and they have no idea what they're gonna cook, and that's what the dinner is provided by?
Tab Salsman
It's like a, an immersive thing.
Hannah Beall
You're, you're speaking my language, 'cause that's something I'm, I'm awaiting, um, approval on some event ideas for the next year.
Tab Salsman
Oh man,
Hannah Beall
I would be like- And I wanna, I wanna have, like, a... It's, it wasn't that extreme, but I did, I wanted to have, like, an experience where the chef doesn't know what I have in the garden, and when they get there they have to basically make a, make some dishes out of it.
Hannah Beall
Maybe not a meal- ... 'cause we don't have the proteins. But,
Tab Salsman
um- Well, that'd be fun.
Hannah Beall
That's
Tab Salsman
where H-E-B comes in.
Hannah Beall
Yeah, yeah. "
Tab Salsman
Hey, look at or- our-" Mm-hmm ... your protein. You can check out any proteins."
Hannah Beall
Yeah, we can partner with some of our local ranchers and, um-
Tab Salsman
Keep your head very still for me right here.
Hannah Beall
Okay. So we can partner with someone to get some meats.
Hannah Beall
But yeah, and just have like the whole experience of walking through the garden, the farm. I say garden and farm because we have one side that's a culinary garden that's more, um, laid out for events and is a lot more like permaculture style, and we grow a lot of our culinary fun, fun stuff over there.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm. Herbs and things. And then the f- the farm itself is like the whole, the whole picture, plus the, the row crop side. But yeah, having an event where we're like cooking on the fly and harvesting right then and there, um, I think would be really cool.
Tab Salsman
I mean, you got
Hannah Beall
so many- And we know a lot of chefs, so.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
We have James Beard guys out here.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Michelin. There's- There's no, uh-
Hannah Beall
No
Tab Salsman
shortage ... finding talent is- Yeah ... is, is not hard. Yeah. You can go to almost anywhere in here, in Austin, you're gonna find great chefs.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Uh, it's one of those really good food cities. I feel like there's, you know, New York always takes over, but like at some point, like, I don't know, like there's something unique about like the Austin food scene.
Tab Salsman
Same thing that I felt like when I was in Portland, too.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm.
Tab Salsman
Like there's some good food out there, too.
Hannah Beall
Yeah. I don't know when this is gonna air, but next week there's a fundraiser at the food bank. Um, and one of our big sponsors is Whataburger.
Tab Salsman
Oh.
Hannah Beall
Um, believe it or not, they are a Texas, they started in Texas, so they support us.
Hannah Beall
And we're gonna have Chef Philip Speer out. He owns Comedor.
Tab Salsman
Oh, I love Comedor.
Hannah Beall
And, um, he has, I think he's curated this team of great chefs who I haven't seen the list of yet, but maybe it's a surprise, and they're gonna do their own spin on Whataburger classic dishes. Oh, that's gonna be cool. So it's gonna be like elevated versions of Whataburger.
Hannah Beall
And so that's, I think next Thursday.
Tab Salsman
This will definitely air after
Hannah Beall
that.
Tab Salsman
Yeah. But I'm curious for my own self.
Hannah Beall
Yeah. Like- But we do things like that.
Tab Salsman
But, but like, is, like how, like if I wanted to go-
Hannah Beall
Yeah ...
Tab Salsman
how would I know when these fundraising events are? Like, is there like a mailing list? Is there- Yeah
Tab Salsman
some sort of email thing going on?
Hannah Beall
Yeah. Um, well, we share it all out on social media. There's an events page at centraltexasfoodbank.org, um, that lists our events. And then I think once you go to one, or once you've donated, or once you've volunteered, you get on an email list. I'm sure there's a way to just sign up on the website as well.
Tab Salsman
Okay.
Hannah Beall
Um-
Tab Salsman
Do you know how much that ticket is for that?
Hannah Beall
The ticket, I believe, was 150 or something. Okay. That's- And you get, um, there's gonna be like a happy hour with fancy cocktails- ... and mocktails and all that good stuff.
Tab Salsman
Which by the way, 150 is Not really all that much-
Hannah Beall
Yeah ...
Tab Salsman
for something like that.
Hannah Beall
No, it's
Tab Salsman
an experience- Particularly if it's the guy who owns Commodore, like-
Hannah Beall
Yeah
Tab Salsman
I mean, 150 is, like, half of the bill.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
And I'm not making a dig at him. It's a great restaurant.
Hannah Beall
And it's a good cause.
Tab Salsman
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, again, the thing I learned from having Jeff on, who is the, uh, farmer advocate, is, uh, without farm- without farmers, he said we'd be, uh, hungry, naked, and sober. Yeah.
Tab Salsman
And, um, it made me realize that, like, we, when we think of farming, we think of mainly food, but also textiles are a huge part of it as well. Mm-hmm. And so anytime I get to talk to anybody who's involved in the farming side, particularly food, um, I find it just really fascinating. So how did you get involved into this?
Tab Salsman
Because, I mean, clearly you started cooking you said when you were eight years old.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm.
Tab Salsman
And I'm assuming it wasn't just, like, Pop-Tarts and Eggo waffles. That was me at eight years old. Um, how does that, how did you get into that? Like, how's that all happen?
Hannah Beall
Um, well, starting cooking was, um, probably because we moved from a somewhat larger city in Texas, Tyler, Texas.
Hannah Beall
We moved out to a very rural, um, town when I was in fourth grade, and I had gotten accustomed to, like, eating at restaurants in Tyler. We loved to go to, like, the Chinese buffet after church. Um, and then we go out to this town where there's one Mexican restaurant and one burger place, and that's about it.
Hannah Beall
And so I would just be, like, longing for these other flavors that I'd missed and, um- My mom just encouraged me. She got me, like, for s- example, Chinese food. I was just, there was no way we were gonna find that within, like, an hour drive from where we lived. So she said, like, she found, I think at the library back then, um, a Chinese cookbook.
Hannah Beall
And the next time we went to San Angelo, which was the biggest town an hour away, she took me to an Asian grocery store, and we got ingredients that we wouldn't have been able to get at our little, little store.
Tab Salsman
Oh, yeah.
Hannah Beall
Um, and I just started learning. Um, both of my parents could cook. Uh, my dad's much better now than he used to be, but, um, they taught me what they knew at least, and then I took it from there and just kind of expanded upon it.
Hannah Beall
And I think my mom loved the... You know, she is a single mom of five kids and- Wow ... loved to have extra help in the kitchen. So it got to where she was just leaving the ingredients out for me and saying, like, "Okay, I've got these things. What are you gonna do with it?" And I would figure it out.
Tab Salsman
Yeah. Growing up for me, the, uh, kitchen was a taboo area.
Hannah Beall
Mm.
Tab Salsman
Like, "No, no, no. Don't, don't touch that." Yeah. Unless it was, like, Christmastime and we're making cookies, and it was my turn to make the- Yeah ... snowman stencil or something- ... or decorate the ice cream- Yeah ... uh, the frosting. But I never was really, like, um... Apart from, like I said, if it involved the microwave or the toaster, I was allowed.
Tab Salsman
If it involved the stove or sharp knives- Yeah ... um, I was not at all into it. And- I really wanted to make sure that, like, w- moving forward with my kids, my boys, that they, um, they didn't have that same restriction. Mm-hmm. So it's like, hey, today I w- I was, you know, I was searing my chuck roast, and I was like, "Hey, I need you to clean these vegetables," and, you know, having the other one, like, start chopping the carrots.
Tab Salsman
Yeah. And, uh, it's not... One, I needed the help.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm.
Tab Salsman
But two, it, like, you trust your kid and it empowers them to, like, have more confidence in themselves. Like, those- Sure ... small little things. Yeah,
Hannah Beall
yeah.
Tab Salsman
It's huge.
Hannah Beall
Yeah. I think it, you know, it just became, like, second nature to me cooking, and, um, now I try to get my daughter in the kitchen as much as I can.
Hannah Beall
She's a little resistant, which I think is... I think I've spoken too much about how, how much I was doing at her age. Oh. She maybe feels like it's too much, I don't know, ex- expectation, but I'm like, "No, I don't expect you to be cooking entire meals. Just come help me."
Tab Salsman
Yeah.
Hannah Beall
Um, but yeah, like, to tie it all in with Food Bank, I, you know, there were times in my childhood where we were on food stamps, as they called them back then.
Hannah Beall
Um, and we were much more limited on what we could buy, and I remember doing the grocery shopping for my mom, and, like, that stigma of feeling like, "Oh, no." I would, like, walk around and avoid the checkout line until it was people I didn't know around, 'cause I didn't want them to see me paying with the, the Lonestar card, which was our, the food stamp payment form back then.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm. Um, and just, like, you know, there being some things that You, that we're out of budget and, uh, learning to just be able to still cook really good food, um, that was healthy. I was into healthy food as a kid, and loved salads, and all sorts of vegetables, so- I
Tab Salsman
hated salads.
Hannah Beall
Yeah. It was just kind of, you know, it put a...
Hannah Beall
I have that lens to look through whenever I'm, I work- I come to work, and that's really, makes it special.
Tab Salsman
How did you discover this position or job to, to do that? 'Cause I mean-
Hannah Beall
Yeah ...
Tab Salsman
uh, anytime I think there's something that happens to an individual, and then they're able to figure out, like, "Hey, I know how that feels, and I would love to be able to help someone out who's going through that same thing," I think that's where, uh, no matter how bad of a day it is at, at the, at the office-
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm
Tab Salsman
it's like, "Well, at least I made a difference." Yeah. Right? Yeah. Like, it's the, it's, it's the, uh, the free bonus pay, right? Like- Yeah,
Hannah Beall
exactly ... at least you
Tab Salsman
made people feel good.
Hannah Beall
It's, it's feel-good farming, is what I call it.
Tab Salsman
That's a great ca- feel-good
Hannah Beall
farming. Um, I mean, I wish farming felt good to all farmers.
Hannah Beall
But I have been an... I was an independent farmer for a few years when I first started farming, and it's, it's hard to feel good.
Tab Salsman
What were you farming?
Hannah Beall
Um, I was farming out in Burnet, Texas, about an hour west of here. I took over a family friend's organic farm. He was one of the, or they were one of the first organic farms in Central Texas.
Hannah Beall
Okay. So it was about, had been in business about 30 years, but his kids didn't wanna take over.
Tab Salsman
Which is common, by the way.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
It's, it's insane.
Hannah Beall
Yeah, very
Tab Salsman
common. I mean, it's like It's not 100% the case, but everyone doesn't want these data centers, and they... I don't think people realize that they're gonna make triple or quadruple the amount of money on just selling the property to the data centers, because you're only making 20, maybe 30 cents per dollar- Mm-hmm
Tab Salsman
from whatever it is that you're, between livestock or, or crops. And it's like, farming is an absolute necessity, and I'm gonna get off my soapbox now. But like, it, it- but it's crazy. Yeah Like, people don't want to be farmers. And then you have, like, these younger farmers starting- Mm-hmm ... because of, like, Joe Salatin and all that.
Tab Salsman
They're like, "Oh, we can do it. We just gotta do it differently."
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
But that still takes a lot of work.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm. Yeah, so I've, my then-husband and I took over this organic farm with our... She was two years old, my daughter, at the time, and just kinda threw ourselves in. I've always grown vegetables at home, but, like, it was a big jump from backyard gardening to a 10 acre, um, farm.
Tab Salsman
Whoa.
Hannah Beall
So- 10
Tab Salsman
acres?
Hannah Beall
Yeah. We weren't always growing on... You know, you, you kind of do a couple acres at a time and let another, the, the other parts rest, or you cover crop. Um-
Tab Salsman
Because you're doing it organically.
Hannah Beall
Yeah, 'cause we were doing organic. We had a small team, so trying not to over- overwhelm ourselves.
Hannah Beall
But we were doing up to five markets a week in our, like, peak season-
Tab Salsman
Yeah ...
Hannah Beall
selling wholesale to farm-to-table and farmhouse delivery, selling to chefs, um, in Austin. So Austin was our main market. Um, but yeah, it was just, it's really hard to make a living and not burn yourselves out and have a good, like, work-life balance as a farmer doing it the- the hustle and bustle kind of way that has been done in the past.
Hannah Beall
So I was working on kind of transitioning it to a more cooperative style farm and bringing in some other farmers and things, and then the pandemic hit, and, uh, the, the farmer sold the property to a neighbor for a cash offer, which I don't blame him, 'cause he'd worked hard his whole life and didn't have retirement and, like many farmers.
Hannah Beall
Um, so that, that ended, but I also am kind of grateful, 'cause that's not the way I wanted to be farming, looking back.
Tab Salsman
No.
Hannah Beall
Um, but now I get to grow food and give it away, which feels really special, and like has a lot more meaning. And I did get into farming for, you know, I was looking for meaningful work and something that my daughter could like look up to and learn from, and could just be a good example for her.
Tab Salsman
Yeah.
Hannah Beall
So this feels even more like that.
Tab Salsman
Is she, uh, interested in what you do with the food and the farming, or is she like, "Nah"?
Hannah Beall
She's pretty interested. She does that thing like most kids where they don't, they act like they're not. But then if I- I've like overheard her talking to people or her friends, or I've heard friends tell me, like, "Oh, she just says you're the best gardener or the best chef," or the...
Hannah Beall
You know, she says things not to my face that-
Tab Salsman
Mm ...
Hannah Beall
validate.
Tab Salsman
You said she's in the double digit age, so- She's 10, yeah ... that, that kind of comes with the territory.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
They start maybe too cool for school sometimes.
Hannah Beall
Exactly.
Tab Salsman
Yeah. Um, I mean, does she... I mean, my kids, they, we went somewhere. I'm not gonna say where we went to, but we got a flyer in the mail, and it was very clever marketing.
Tab Salsman
Mm-hmm. And my sons thought it was the greatest marketing ever. And, uh, so we went to this Italian restaurant. You can imagine what, these big chain ones. Mm-hmm. So we had never, they had never gone, and we'd never been either. So we go in there and they said, "Would you like to have the salad?" And my kids are like, "Yeah, we love salad."
Tab Salsman
And then they get the salad and it's, like, iceberg lettuce- Mm ... and, like, couple, like, soggy tomato. It was, it was- Yeah ... awful, right? And my kids were like- This isn't salad ... this is awful. They're like, "What is this?" They're, like, holding up iceberg lettuce and my wife and I are like, like, "Well, this is why we didn't like salads growing up."
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
They're like, "Why do they not have arugula? Where's the red onion?"
Hannah Beall
Yeah. "
Tab Salsman
Where's the, like, where's the figs?"
Hannah Beall
Aw. And it was That's such a proud parent moment.
Tab Salsman
But then my wife's, like, looking at me, she's like, "We're raising bougie salad-eating kids." Yeah,
Hannah Beall
true.
Tab Salsman
And I'm like, well, I, I like cooking, you know?
Tab Salsman
Like, but, um, does she do that at least? Is she, or is your, is your, is your daughter like, "Oh, God, like, I love it. Can we, do we have to go out to dinner? Can you cook?" Is it, like, one of those things? Or is she-
Hannah Beall
She, yeah, she mostly likes my cooking. I can't get as ven- as adventurous as I like. Um, she still doesn't like a lot of, like, combined foods.
Hannah Beall
What's a combined food? You know, like soups and, she likes ramen, but she doesn't like, like soups and stews.
Tab Salsman
Interesting.
Hannah Beall
Um, so I still, I call it, like, deconstructing, so I'll, like, make something for myself and kinda deconstruct it for her. Um, she still loves a lot of the things that she first tasted at two years old on the farm- Oh
Hannah Beall
that we lived on, which are raw okra
Tab Salsman
Yeah.
Hannah Beall
Um- I've
Tab Salsman
never had raw okra.
Hannah Beall
Yeah. It, she, she loves taking that to lun- to, in her lunch at school 'cause- Really? ... peop- the other kids are just like, "First of all, what is that? Second of all, like, I've only ever seen it pickled if I have seen it at all." Um, and she loves shishito peppers.
Hannah Beall
She loves lunchbox peppers, things like that that I used to grow and she would eat right off the vine. So I think, like, that says something about introducing your kids to being able to, like, harvest even if it's a little garden in your backyard. Some people think, "Oh, it's way w- costs more money than it's worth to grow this little garden in my backyard, then I can just buy these things at the grocery store," but it loses a lot of meaning for kids if they see it come from the grocery store-
Tab Salsman
Mm-hmm
Hannah Beall
versus getting it out of their own, like, going and picking it off the vine themselves and eating it with the warm sunshine still, still in there.
Tab Salsman
Oh,
Hannah Beall
okay. It's, like, memorable, and then they're introducing that flavor to their, their young developing palate earlier than they would.
Tab Salsman
Yeah, we did baby-led weaning.
Tab Salsman
Yeah. So whatever we ate, they ate. And so they didn't really have a, a choice.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
And, uh, I think that was a, a shock for some, uh, if you went to a restaurant or they'd be like, "Oh, they're eating what you're eating." We're like-
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm ...
Tab Salsman
mm-hmm.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Which is great because now, like, we make, like, a, a modified version of, like, a chimichurri sauce.
Tab Salsman
We had it last night, and they're like, "Oh." They call it green sauce- Mm-hmm ... 'cause it's predominantly green. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, "This is so nice," 'cause we can go out to a restaurant and instead of ordering off the kids menu, which, you know, don't get me wrong, we could.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
But we, they, they'll, they'll look at the whole menu and be like, "Ooh, this is good."
Tab Salsman
You know? Don't get me wrong. We went somewhere and they, like, really just wanted a chicken quesadilla.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Which I want a chicken quesadilla sometimes too. Yeah You
Hannah Beall
know? Sometimes that's what you need.
Tab Salsman
But we went, I think we went to, um, what was it? One of our favorite taquerias that at least we went to recently.
Tab Salsman
There's two of them in town. One of them is Paprika.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's up by my house.
Tab Salsman
I love that place. And then the other one was, uh, gosh, I forget. It's, like, something. It's right there off s- it's right across from Loro. Diez, tien, 10 something. Ten Ten? It's like Ten Ten, something like that Tacos.
Hannah Beall
Oh, okay.
Tab Salsman
Die- No, you're not I, I don't, I, I'm horrible with Spanish. I
Hannah Beall
know. I can't-
Tab Salsman
Spanish in me, like- Mm-hmm ... we don't, I can barely pronounce anything. But, like, their al pastor was, like- Oh, okay ... amazing.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm. Okay.
Tab Salsman
Just looking. Mm-hmm. There's, like, these little fringy bits right over here. I just wanna, like-
Hannah Beall
Yeah
Tab Salsman
get rid of these.
Hannah Beall
The fringy bits.
Tab Salsman
Yeah.
Hannah Beall
But yeah, so that was kinda my journey. Um, and then so after we lost access to the farmland, we moved back to Austin. I worked in various kind of, like, farm- related jobs that were not really great. I mean, they were great, but it wasn't what I was looking for. Yeah. And then I also wasn't looking for a, like, traditional farm job again either.
Hannah Beall
So I knew that, like, I was... I didn't know exactly what I was looking for, but I knew it wasn't what I'd already done. Yeah,
Tab Salsman
totally, right? Hang on, let me r- get this off your face real quick.
Tab Salsman
I'm gonna grab a, a curling iron real quick, okay?
Hannah Beall
Yeah, and then the, this job at the food bank came up and I was like, "Wait, that's actually pretty perfect." I can have, um, you know, a sense of security being, you know, in a full-time position with benefits and a salary- ... and an actual, like, more 9:00 to 5:00 type schedule versus farming my own place, which is, you know, a never ending job.
Hannah Beall
Oh, yeah.
Tab Salsman
Oh,
Hannah Beall
yeah. So yeah, it's been really great for my, my work-life balance.
Tab Salsman
We took a tour of a, um, raw dairy farm, and they were telling us, like, "And this is the house," uh, you know, she was, like, giving the tour. She's like, "My husband was born in- Mm ... and we still live here," and, you know, his father was born here- Yeah
Tab Salsman
on this property, and died on this pro- I was like, man, that's actually a, a very common thing to- Mm-hmm ... the fa- the, the, the land gets passed down and everyone just kinda stays in the house. Mm-hmm. Or a house on that property, which is crazy to, to not grow up in that environment, to like... I don't know. It's just, it was like a, a moment.
Tab Salsman
I was like, oh yeah, that's what happens.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm. I think that's happening less, but that's, like, what traditionally used to happen.
Tab Salsman
Yes, exact- That's what I'm saying. Like, it's like, well, this was the normal thing back
Hannah Beall
in the day. Before kinda globalization and people moving around more. Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Yeah, I mean, your family used to be within, like, a five-mile radius- Mm-hmm
Tab Salsman
and now they're, like, not even in the ti- same time zone.
Hannah Beall
Yeah
Tab Salsman
So if people want to get involved, how can individuals help out? Like, what is the volunteer plan look like? Oh, one more thing. Mm-hmm. Um, is it like, do you guys do things for like... This will definitely be airing before Thanksgiving, so like do you guys do something for Thanksgiving where there's like a...
Tab Salsman
Like, we did it once where we were able to volunteer with the Rotary Club in, uh, California.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm.
Tab Salsman
And we helped serve the food that they had provided for like a Thanksgiving. Do you guys do anything like that?
Hannah Beall
Yeah. Um, so to get involved, um, volunteers are actually like the backbone of our organization, so we have a robust volunteer program.
Hannah Beall
Um, and I know we've won Best Volunteer Experience through the Austin Chronicle Awards like many years in a row. Um, so we have on the centraltexasfoodbank.org website, you can go on there and sign up. You basically just, you know, um, register on our portal, and then you get to see this whole calendar view of all sorts of opportunities, which our biggest volunteer area is the sort room, where, um, on any given day you might be like going in to sort through vegetables that'll get bagged up to be able to be distributed better.
Hannah Beall
Um, just making sure there's not like rotten ones or really bad ones. So, and then you may be sorting through like dented cans one day And you
Tab Salsman
don't wanna give out dented cans?
Hannah Beall
There's just a certain level of denting that is hazardous. There's a, there's like a threshold, so we have pictures and guidance on what to accept.
Hannah Beall
So we're cer- we're checking for that. Okay. If a can is dented to the point that it's like broken, you know, cracked- Oh, yeah ...
Tab Salsman
um-
Hannah Beall
Sealed, like unsealed at that
Tab Salsman
point ... yeah Yeah, that
Hannah Beall
makes
Tab Salsman
sense. Or, or- I was just like, how bad is ... I'm like sh- Yeah ... thinking to myself, have I been buying really bad dented stuff-
Hannah Beall
No
Tab Salsman
before? 'Cause I'm like, who cares, it's a dent.
Hannah Beall
Yeah. So there's ... And then same with expiration dates since those are really more of like a guideline and more of a quality kind of date, quality control date than a- What's the threshold on that? ... hazardous. '
Tab Salsman
Cause my kids just discovered expiration dates on stuff.
Hannah Beall
And they're obsessed with it? Ab- My daughter is.
Tab Salsman
Yeah, sh- and they, now when we go to the yogurt, we buy yogurt, we're buying like Skyr, they're like, "Oh, oh, we only have so many- It expires ... days to eat this," and I'm like, "That's the recommendation." And was like-
Hannah Beall
Yeah ...
Tab Salsman
now you're making me feel like did I ex- they're like, "So wait, you can eat it past the expiration?"
Tab Salsman
I'm like, "Within reason."
Hannah Beall
Yeah. So the date is really more for the grocery stores to know when they need to get it off the shelves. Mm-hmm. Um, and that is so that, that the companies can control their quality. So it's not that it's gonna go bad. It's that maybe, you know, if it's like crackers or chips or something, maybe they're gonna not be as crispy, crunchy, fresh.
Hannah Beall
Um, but- I feel like they could- ... odds are they're still gonna be fine 'cause they have so many preservatives.
Tab Salsman
Yeah.
Hannah Beall
We won't go down that rabbit hole. Um, but yeah, so the, it's really not like that it's gonna go bad that day that it expires.
Tab Salsman
Yeah.
Hannah Beall
It's, um, so I s- I can't remember all the things. I know like canned goods have some up to three years past the date- Yeah
Hannah Beall
that you can keep them.
Tab Salsman
What?
Hannah Beall
Really? Um, eggs is like five to six weeks past.
Tab Salsman
I knew eggs had a longer shelf life-
Hannah Beall
Yeah, than they- ...
Tab Salsman
than what people have done that-
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm ...
Tab Salsman
before. Everyone's like- Yeah ... "Oh, we have to throw them out." I'm like, I don't remember that.
Hannah Beall
And then a lot of the meats and things people don't think about, they'll throw something out, but if you just freeze it before it's, um, you know, it can go a, a little past its date of course, probably like a few days to a week depending on how it's packaged.
Hannah Beall
Um-
Tab Salsman
Yeah, like if it's
Hannah Beall
like- But just throw it in the freezer and you buy yourself some time, like lots of time, like a year. I mean,
Tab Salsman
we do ButcherBox. Yeah. So all of our stuff is frozen.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
And much like the, um, you said the mystery meals of like the food that people say like, "Oh, we don't really- Mm-hmm ... use this," or whatever, um, we actually ended up really enjoying the, I call it the mystery meals of like the red meat box, and it was just like a whole bunch of red meat.
Tab Salsman
It forced us to open up our palate to different, like oh-
Hannah Beall
Try new things, yeah ...
Tab Salsman
let's, I've never heard of this meat before, or- How do we cook this, you know? And now, and b- between our, our Ooni, which is our, our searing station, 'cause it's like 900 degrees-
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm ...
Tab Salsman
and our smoker, there's like so many options.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm.
Tab Salsman
It's insane how just, like, a few, just changing, like, how you cook it changes everything.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
So you guys have all these fun positions.
Hannah Beall
So then you can also volunteer at our mobile pantry distributions. So those are the ones that, um, you'll see in, like, set up in parking lots sometimes. Okay. The, they go out to different sites, um, all around our service area.
Hannah Beall
So you can volunteer to help at those, which those are really gratifying 'cause you're getting to directly serve the people who- Mm-hmm ... need the food. Um, so a lot of people enjoy that. We get a lot of our celebrity volunteers going out on, on the mobile distributions. All right.
Tab Salsman
Who are the celebrity volunteers?
Hannah Beall
Um- Are you
Tab Salsman
allowed to say?
Hannah Beall
I think so. I mean, we get a lot of l- like legislators and, like, the mayor comes out occasionally. Um, but-
Tab Salsman
What
Hannah Beall
about Matthew McConaughey? ... off the top of my head, I was about to say Matthew McConaughey's wife, Camila, is that her name? Yeah. Uh, she comes out pretty frequently. But not Matthew.
Hannah Beall
I haven't seen Matthew since I've been here. He
Tab Salsman
needs to go out there.
Hannah Beall
Yeah, he does.
Tab Salsman
He needs
Hannah Beall
to
Tab Salsman
go
Hannah Beall
out there. Boots on the ground, Matthew.
Tab Salsman
He needs to be like, "You know-
Hannah Beall
We're looking at you. ...
Tab Salsman
the people here at Central Food Bank are all right, all right." You know? Oh, yeah. Yeah. He, I mean, he's... Does he own that phrase?
Hannah Beall
Probably by now, yeah.
Tab Salsman
Wouldn't that be awful if, like, you quote him, but then you have to pay him money every time 'cause he owns the phrase?
Hannah Beall
We'll just do two all rights instead. Yeah.
Tab Salsman
All right, all right.
Hannah Beall
Mm. You know the rest.
Tab Salsman
Not gonna say
Hannah Beall
it. Yeah. But yeah. And then the most popular, the best place to volunteer is in the f- in the garden at the farm.
Hannah Beall
It's called Fresh Harvest Farm.
Tab Salsman
Okay.
Hannah Beall
And that's with me and my coordinator, Alex. She leads the shifts. I come out and make sure everything's running well and, um, make sure all the tasks are getting done. Um, and then if we have a big shift, like sometimes we get groups from different corporations that wanna come out, but I'll go out and we'll split up the group and have- That's cool
Hannah Beall
a great experience. But you can sign up for those on the website. Um, it's about to be, I think towards the end of next week we're gonna be in some real fall weather, so-
Tab Salsman
I know,
Hannah Beall
right ... those fair weather farmers can come out and enjoy some time. It's harder to get people out there in the summer.
Tab Salsman
Oh, it's... I don't even wanna, like, walk out and check the mail.
Hannah Beall
Mm-mm. Yeah, it's rough.
Tab Salsman
How's the haircut been looking?
Hannah Beall
It looks good.
Tab Salsman
All right, cool.
Hannah Beall
Yeah. Just
Tab Salsman
add a little bend in here since I know you usually let it air dry.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm
Hannah Beall
Like it, like it. Might have to make some plans tonight.
Tab Salsman
So I'm telling you, it, it is a Friday, you know? It
Hannah Beall
truly is.
Tab Salsman
Friday. People ask me, they're like, "Oh, my hair looks too good." I'm like, "Now you sh- I, so I told you, you should've made plans." You know, it is Friday. All right. Well, let me see. Is there any other questions?
Tab Salsman
See, I think you answered, like, all of my questions- Mm-hmm ... that I had because, you know It's one of those things where, like I said earlier, I, you just don't know what it is. Yeah. And, you know, we don't, we don't watch the news, you know? So, like, if it's not, like, being told to me through a screen in my hand, I don't really know what's going on, you
Hannah Beall
know?
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
But I just remember hearing about food banks and food pantries, and I'm like, ... And then once, uh, Ryan said, you know, was like, "Oh, she works there and she's in charge of the f- the farming." I'm like, "Okay, well, this is way different than, like, what I thought it would be."
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Does somebody have to, like, have that farming background like you do to, like, do what you do there?
Hannah Beall
Yeah, you have to have some, um, some, at least some growing experience, 'cause that's what, yeah, the main, the main goal of our program is to grow food for our on-site market. Um, so yeah, I had enough experience for that. And felt like it was, it was a pretty easy transition compared to running a whole farm.
Tab Salsman
Oh, yeah. Like, I mean, a whole farm.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
I also wouldn't even wanna own a whole farm. I think it sounds fun.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
But I realize I would just have a farm full of miniature, like, Highland cows.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm.
Tab Salsman
I don't think you can do much with them- ... other than just, like, sell adorable cows to people. But I don't think those are something you eat.
Tab Salsman
And, uh, I don't know what you do with those, but they're just awesome looking.
Hannah Beall
Yeah. I think people eat them, but they're almost too cute.
Tab Salsman
That's what I'm saying.
Hannah Beall
I think the f- the food bank, we distribute millions of pounds of food, and everything's measured in pounds at the food bank. Um, so our little plot, we grow an average of, like, 20,000 pounds a year, which is a lot- That's a lot
Hannah Beall
for a very small place. But it's a drop in the bucket t- compared to the need.
Tab Salsman
Mm-hmm.
Hannah Beall
Um, so sometimes I can get in my existential dread about, like, what is, what is the purpose? What is the meaning of all this? But like I said, it all comes back to being an example of, um, what you can do for your, like, immediate community- Mm-hmm
Hannah Beall
as, and it being like a ripple effect. And if a lot of communities had small areas that were serving their, just their closest neighbors, then we could maybe feed the world.
Tab Salsman
Is there programs to have kids get involved in this?
Hannah Beall
Um,
Tab Salsman
yeah. Because the thing that bummed me out when we were trying to, like, um- When my wife and I were pregnant, we're like, "Oh man, we could totally go through when our kids get older, we can all donate our time and, you know, help feed those individuals on Thanksgiving," but they won't allow kids.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm.
Tab Salsman
And I'm like, man, that sucks because, like, the one of the greatest things is to not only tell your kids, but to demonstrate. Yeah. I think actions provide the best form of leadership is, you know, the do as I do, not just as I say, right?
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Um, so are there any sort of, like, ways that kids can get involved
Hannah Beall
to, like- Yeah.
Hannah Beall
I think your kids are almost there. We ha- you have to be eight years old to volunteer in the sort room. Mm-hmm. Um, unfortunately for the garden farm, we have a 15-year-old cutoff. Okay. But I'm trying to work in some, like, family days maybe on, like, one Saturday a month or something.
Tab Salsman
Yeah.
Hannah Beall
Just 'cause I do get that a lot, that request a lot.
Hannah Beall
It's just kind of, you know, the way our farm is set up, it's a little dangerous and hazardous to have kids running around.
Tab Salsman
Mm-hmm.
Hannah Beall
Um, but we're trying to figure that out. There used to be a lot more kids on the farm- Yeah ... um, because we had SNAP funding for garden education.
Tab Salsman
Okay.
Hannah Beall
And this was back before I started there.
Hannah Beall
Um, but the, that was some stuff that was cut, um, out of farm bills and funding, government funding, so.
Tab Salsman
Yeah. I mean, you were talking about SNAP. The, the past couple months, the SNAP thing has just been a, a very big, um, hot potato, if you will.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm.
Tab Salsman
You know, like what it should include, what it should not include.
Hannah Beall
Yeah, for sure.
Tab Salsman
But yeah. Well, at least you guys are growing stuff. Yeah. That's the thing I think that's cool,
Hannah Beall
is like- And we do have, we have, um, we give tours and have, like, field trips, summer field trips out to the-
Tab Salsman
Mm-hmm ...
Hannah Beall
the farm and the food bank, um, through our summer meals program. So we have a whole team that deals with the children's services.
Hannah Beall
So they work with our, uh, kitchen to distribute meals to different summer camps, like some of the city summer camps and, uh, YMCA camps throughout the summer and different school sites so that kids are getting food in the summer. 'Cause sometimes, um, with the food insecure children, like, the only meal they get is at school.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Yeah.
Hannah Beall
Then if school's out, they're not getting fed. So we try to fill that gap.
Tab Salsman
It's crazy 'cause when I was a kid, I never even, I never even thought of any of these things or knew of these things because I guess, you know, you... My, my parents were, you know, uh, we weren't wealthy. Yeah. We weren't, like, rich, but, like, I never had to worry about getting a meal.
Tab Salsman
Mm-hmm. And I can't imagine what that's like. I- And, and what kind of put it in perspective that how many people don't have things was that my great uncle, uh, he looked like a very jolly man. Like, he literally looked like Santa Claus. Mm-hmm. And when he had retired, he would do Santa Claus. And he would tell us the things that kids ask for, and it was just, like, a toothbrush.
Tab Salsman
They needed, like, a blanket. Mm.
Hannah Beall
Very simple, yeah.
Tab Salsman
Yeah. And, um, and ever since that, that day, I would always try to find, if I found those Christmas trees where you could buy gifts for kids- Mm-hmm ... and all that. So as soon as I started making my own money at, like, 17- Wow ... I was like, "Okay." Yeah. I'm like, "What is it that they want?
Tab Salsman
Shoes? Okay, let's go through and do it," you know?
Hannah Beall
That's cool.
Tab Salsman
And, um, and so if there's any way, you know, I could, like, help with something, I, I will. Um, but that's why I was wanting to know what it is 'cause, like, I'm thinking to myself like, "Man, can I not only do something to help volunteer now with this," 'cause it's all these things that I do like, but how can my kids get involved?
Hannah Beall
Yeah. Um, I mean, I know that-
Tab Salsman
It's a family affair ...
Hannah Beall
some people do, um, like, food drives at their schools. You can, like... Kids can host one in their classroom. Um- Different events can benefit the food bank. You would just get in touch with our, um, resource development team, and they, like, have that all figured out, how to partner on different ways to get involved.
Tab Salsman
Mm-hmm.
Hannah Beall
Um, and then, yeah, we have for, to go back to the Thanksgiving, we do these big turkey distributions for Thanksgiving. So that's when a lot of times the, the celebrities and the legislators will come out and-
Tab Salsman
They
Hannah Beall
wanna see 'em ... help give out turkeys.
Tab Salsman
Hocking those birds out.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Um-
Hannah Beall
So that's coming up.
Hannah Beall
Turkey season's always a big one.
Tab Salsman
With, does somebody have, like, you said, uh, c- is there, like, um, a screening process to be accepted into this, uh, thing? Like, for food? Like, like, how do you know that somebody's actually food insecure and not just taking advantage of, like, people's generosity?
Hannah Beall
Um, we-
Tab Salsman
Sorry to ask you that one.
Tab Salsman
Yeah. But like, I mean, I thought about it. I'm like, I could go there and say, like, "Oh, my gosh, I need food." And, and if somebody came in, I'd be like, "Oh, here you go. Here's your food," you know? But, like-
Hannah Beall
Yeah. From what I understand, um, the majority, if not all of our partner agencies just accept anyone who needs food.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm. Um, oftentimes there is a limit, so they'll keep track of who's been there, so maybe they set, they set their own limits. We, at the food bank, um, are tr- we try to only have it be a one-time emergency type of thing, and then we s- give them the map and the resources to, like, go to other places in their neighborhood-
Tab Salsman
Mm-hmm
Hannah Beall
um, or closer to home. 'Cause a lot of people are, are trekking all the way out to the food bank 'cause we're, we're not near neighborhoods.
Tab Salsman
Oh, no.
Hannah Beall
Um- It's, like, all
Tab Salsman
industrial stuff.
Hannah Beall
Yeah. They're making it all the way out there to get some food, and we're like, "There's actually a place right down the road from your home that you could go to every week."
Hannah Beall
Um, so it just depends, but no, we don't screen. Um, we trust that people are in need, and we, we occasionally get people coming back, but it's, it really, there's not, like, a line out the door of people coming to get food every day. It's- Mm-hmm. We serve probably an average of 50 households a day, which is a lot, but there's not just, like, a, a line around the corner like I see at some, some of the neighborhood distributions that I've witnessed
Tab Salsman
All right.
Tab Salsman
Are you seeing an increase of people showing up that, uh, because food costs are just so high right now?
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
The news will tell you it's only been, like, a 3% inflation. No. I think they're full of shit.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
It's more like 50, 'cause I have a couple clients that live here-
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm ...
Tab Salsman
and, uh, that are either chefs or own restaurants.
Tab Salsman
And they were saying, they're like, they're like, "It's not a 3%." It's, like, in some cases almost 60% increase of food costs.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm.
Tab Salsman
Which is wild. Yeah. You know? And so if, I mean, my wife and I, we, we look at our grocery bill, and we're like, you know, we're a family of four, and we don't really buy, like, a lot of pre-made things.
Tab Salsman
We already have our freezer of meat.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm.
Tab Salsman
We're just really just buying, like, fresh fruit and vegetables 'cause we're making everything from scratch.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
And I don't think I can get out of the grocery store without paying, like, 100 and something dollars, and it's only gonna last, like, two days.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Hannah Beall
Same.
Tab Salsman
Yeah. So how... I mean, that's something we c- we don't have the answer f- like, how to stop that one problem. But with that being the current problem, are you noticing that there's more people actually showing up? Because of that.
Hannah Beall
I think so. I think, um, since the pandemic, this has been an increasing problem.
Hannah Beall
Yeah. And there's this whole group of people that get, that fall through the cracks because they aren't having a, a hard enough time to, like, qualify for the benefits, but they're still living paycheck to paycheck, um, and having a hard time buying food. So it's really important that they're not excluded from being able to, to get s- help and to get food, supplemental food.
Hannah Beall
Um-
Tab Salsman
I always think about that. Mm-hmm. 'Cause I'm always like, I know people, like, I, you know, over the years had friends who are like, "It was hard for this to do that," but, like, what ... They, they make, they make, they don't make enough to actually be comfortable-
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm ...
Tab Salsman
in their own situation, but they don't, they make too much to qualify for anything.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
And then it makes them feel really bitter. Like, "What am I paying taxes for? What am I paying this if I don't, if I'm actually in need and I can't take advantage- Mm-hmm ... of the thing that's designed to help me, then-
Hannah Beall
Yeah ...
Tab Salsman
you know, let's burn it all to hell." Yeah. Like, that's kind of like that, they all end up this way at some point.
Tab Salsman
Yeah. And I'm like, I get it. It's, it's frustrating.
Hannah Beall
Yeah. And that's, I mean, a lot of that comes around to policy and advocacy and voting for people who support changes and, you know, less restrictive benefit processes. Um, and we have a whole team at the food bank actually that works with advocacy and policy- Mm-hmm
Hannah Beall
which is great. So, um, they are, like, camped out at the capital during the legislative session, like, you know, fighting for our neighbors and for the, the policies that will benefit people who need it most, who, like, don't, can't go and voice it themselves.
Tab Salsman
Yeah. It's, it's, it is a, that, that group of individuals I think is the, um, I don't want to say they're more marginalized, but I think there's a, a larger amount of them than people would realize- Yeah
Tab Salsman
that are, would benefit from being able to have access to this. And it's not a permanent access. Mm-hmm. It's just temporarily until we can figure out what's going on. Yeah. My wife is, um, on a Facebook group, and I don't know w- how she ended up on this group, but it was Something I've thought, like people are just giving away free things, and I think it's 'cause we just give away- Is that a buy
Hannah Beall
nothing maybe?
Tab Salsman
I think it's like- A buy
Hannah Beall
nothing group ...
Tab Salsman
but there or there's a lot of families saying, "We... Does anybody have diapers?" Or- Oh, yeah ... "I'm out of... I don't... I can't... I need eggs."
Hannah Beall
Yeah. "
Tab Salsman
I, I don't have milk or f- or formula," or whatever it may be. And my wife's like, you know, "This..." It's like she goes, "I hate going on and reading these things and, and feeling like fortunate that we don't."
Tab Salsman
She goes, "But it made me realize that, like, there are a lot more people right now- Yeah, it
Hannah Beall
brings it- ...
Tab Salsman
struggling- ...
Hannah Beall
to the forefront ... for,
Tab Salsman
for- Yeah ... these more basic things than ever before." She said since we moved here six years ago, uh, 'cause again, I think she joined the group so that way we can just like, "Hey, here's a TV we don't want anymore."
Tab Salsman
Mm-hmm. 'Cause we like wanted to get rid of from five TVs to one TV. Mm-hmm. Five TVs is excessive.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Um, and I'll be honest, I didn't buy all them. Mm-hmm. It's, you know, when- You just accumulated them ... my wife and I got married, you know, she had her TVs, I had my TVs. And then, um, you know, my dad's an electrician, and so people are like, "Hey, they're giving away this TV at this job site.
Tab Salsman
Do you..." And, you know, so next thing you know, you have too many damn TVs. Yep. Um, but it, it... She said this, in the last couple years she's definitely noticed more people frequently asking for-
Hannah Beall
Asking, yeah ...
Tab Salsman
l- uh, lower cost items of food to support- Mm-hmm ... their families.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
And I'm just wondering like are the, would these people be able to have access?
Hannah Beall
Yeah. Yes. Yeah. And we have a tool on our website called Find Food Now. Okay. And that's where people can get on and search, like plug in their address to be able to find the closest resource to them.
Tab Salsman
Yeah.
Hannah Beall
And like I said, as far as I know, like there's not an application process for these places. They'll oftentimes ask for, um, the information, you know.
Hannah Beall
You'd fill out something just for their own data- Uh-huh ... recording, you know?
Tab Salsman
Yeah.
Hannah Beall
Um, but other than that, they're not... They don't need you to bring in like a pay stub or your tax forms or, um, they're not checking IDs, so.
Tab Salsman
Yeah.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Yeah, I mean, 'cause the, the funny thing about the tax form is that, you know, one year you could've been doing really well.
Hannah Beall
Yeah. And
Tab Salsman
now you're laid off.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
And you're-
Hannah Beall
Or you had some big medical emergency, and it may look like you made a lot of money, but since insurance isn't gonna pay for things. That's
Tab Salsman
a... Insurance is a scam. I'm like, I think so many things are a scam. I... If somebody listens to me long enough, they're like, I probably sound like an anarchist.
Tab Salsman
I'm like, "It's all a scam. It's all a lie. You can't trust anyone." But, you know, that's-
Hannah Beall
Yeah. I'm not- You just lived it.
Tab Salsman
I've, I've seen it. Yeah. I've had people who have had their lives destroyed-
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm ...
Tab Salsman
because- In most cases, insurance didn't wanna provide-
Hannah Beall
Yeah ...
Tab Salsman
the test.
Hannah Beall
The insurance, which it's in the name of.
Tab Salsman
Yeah, yeah. The insurance company was like, "Oh, no, you don't need that test." And sure enough, they needed the test, and because they didn't get the test- Yeah ... it cost way more later on. Yeah. It's, it's awful. Uh, but I hope your hair's not awful.
Hannah Beall
No, it's beautiful.
Tab Salsman
Yeah, so just a little bit- I brought it back
Hannah Beall
to life.
Tab Salsman
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And so, you know, your hair will shrink up a little bit when it gets curlier.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm.
Tab Salsman
But that's why I wanted to curl it, to kinda get an idea of like... 'Cause your waves are actually not too far off from like this. When you came over- Mm-hmm ... you had a little bit of a wave going on.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
And so, um-
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Cool. Um, okay, so final words. Central Texas Food Bank, uh, there's, it serves, uh, what you said, a hun- 60 counties, right?
Hannah Beall
21 counties. 21 counties. Uh, about 600,000 people a year.
Tab Salsman
And they can go to, what's the website again?
Hannah Beall
CentralTexasFoodBank.org. .
Tab Salsman
org, and then they can go through and find out where there's food right there.
Tab Salsman
And if they wanna volunteer, they can volunteer from that site. Yeah. All those things. There's also an Instagram account, right? Mm-hmm. So if people wanna stay abreast to what's happening locally.
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm.
Tab Salsman
Um, there's also chances to be involved with fundraising, 'cause this is a, this is a hybrid mix of volunteer, donations, and public funding.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
Am I correct on all this?
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm.
Tab Salsman
Okay. Tryin' to, I'm trying to recap so I can remember
Hannah Beall
everything. Yeah. I will plug our next, um, very popular fundraiser event. It's called Empty Bowl Project.
Tab Salsman
Okay.
Hannah Beall
And it's, um, November 22nd, I believe. Okay. It's the Sunday before Thanksgiving week. And, um, local ceramicists make these beautiful bowls.
Hannah Beall
There's so many bowls. Yeah. They're beautiful. Um, and you go in and you get to pick out a bowl, and then you go through and you get to pick out a soup that's made by a local restaurant. So we have probably a dozen local restaurants that make some sort of fun soup, and you get to pick your soup and pick your bowl, and get to eat it right there in our warehouse and see, like, the vast amount of food that we store and distribute.
Hannah Beall
Um, it's a really, it's one of my favorite events. I go every year, and, um, I have a nice beautiful bowl collection now of just Empty Bowl Project bowls that we get to eat our food out of, and feel- That sounds cool ... feel so grateful that we have food in our bowls.
Tab Salsman
Yeah, and what's, what's the price on that?
Hannah Beall
Um, I think it's, it's $30 for the bowl and the soup.
Tab Salsman
Okay.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
And again, this is
Hannah Beall
all going for- And there's usually a long line, so don't let it scare you. It moves quickly.
Tab Salsman
Okay.
Hannah Beall
But people get there early and kind of tailgate,
Tab Salsman
which is fun. Then there's not like a, a fast track where you can buy your ticket ahead of time and,
Hannah Beall
like, move through?
Hannah Beall
I don't think so. I think that's probably maybe something they could ch- consider. They do a preview party the night before- Okay ... so that is more of the fast track. So you get, you can pay extra, I'm not sure how much, to go Saturday night, and I think you get more of a, a meal and a little bit more of a VIP experience, and you get first pick of the bowls.
Hannah Beall
So a lot of people like to go and, like, get their special artists that they love
Tab Salsman
or something. And, and one more random question.
Hannah Beall
Yeah.
Tab Salsman
All of these things, for somebody who is financially conscious about, these are all tax write-off things. Mm-hmm,
Hannah Beall
yeah.
Tab Salsman
So not only are you feeling good and you're helping the local group, you're also getting to donate for a good cause, and you get to use it as a tax write-off.
Hannah Beall
Yeah, for sure.
Tab Salsman
So look, if you're gonna go eat some food- Mm-hmm ... and you're gonna spend money on inflated prices, at least have it go to help feed other people.
Hannah Beall
Exactly.
Tab Salsman
That's, that's a- Yeah ... that's, that makes me feel good.
Hannah Beall
Feel, feel good food, yeah.
Tab Salsman
Now I'm thinking, I'm like, I'm gonna be in town on that weekend- Mm-hmm
Tab Salsman
so maybe I can round up my family.
Hannah Beall
Yes.
Tab Salsman
I think my kids would think it's so cool.
Hannah Beall
That, it is fun, yeah.
Tab Salsman
Do you bring your daughter to that? Yeah. Have you? Yeah. Does she enjoy it?
Hannah Beall
Mm-hmm, yeah.
Tab Salsman
Awesome. Cool.
Hannah Beall
Yeah. We usually get there a little early and hang out, and I, I'll put her to work in the... I know I said kids aren't allowed, but my kid my kid is allowed in the, on the farm.
Hannah Beall
And so I'll, I'll have her weeding or doing something. Well, she grew up on
Tab Salsman
a farm for a while. Yeah. So you know, it's
Hannah Beall
like her backyard. She's got, she's got the resume.
Tab Salsman
Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Um, cool. Is there anything else you wanna add? 'Cause I think we've probably pretty much got it all done, I
