Regional Food Bank spotlights Loaves & Fishes, largest pantry in Oklahoma Panhandle

More than 1,000 families a month now rely on Loaves & Fishes of Guymon, a workload that makes the pantry the largest in the Oklahoma Panhandle and one of the clearest indicators of strain in Texas County. The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma’s spotlight on the pantry lands in a county where 3,480 people were estimated to be living with hunger, the food insecurity rate stood at 16.5%, and the average meal cost was $3.64.

Those numbers matter because they show how tightly household budgets are stretched in Guymon and across Texas County. When groceries are this expensive relative to local need, a pantry visit is not a side service. It is part of how families make it through the month, covering food so rent, fuel, utilities and other bills can be paid with what remains.

The Regional Food Bank said its network includes 314 community-based partner agencies in 53 counties across central and western Oklahoma, a footprint that reflects how widespread the need has become. Oklahoma was described by the food bank as one of the hungriest states in the nation. In Texas County alone, the food bank reported 859,300 pounds distributed and 716,083 equivalent meals distributed from July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024, with pantry service concentrated at two partner sites, Hooker Fights Hunger and Loaves & Fishes of Guymon.

The trend line in the county profiles suggests demand has not just stayed high, it has grown. Earlier Texas County data listed 2,340 people living with hunger and 45,934 pantry visits or households served at two sites. The most recent profile put the hunger estimate at 3,480, a jump that underscores how quickly more families have been pushed toward the edge.

That pressure was visible years earlier. In November 2022, Loaves & Fishes board president Gail Parsley said the pantry had helped 1,028 households in October, 300 more than before and a 41% increase from January. “Keep up the good work,” Parsley said at the time, a brief line that captured how much the pantry had already become a stabilizing force in Guymon.

For Texas County, Loaves & Fishes is more than a pantry name. It is a weekly measure of household strain, a local response to rising grocery costs, and a frontline operation that keeps thousands of pounds of food moving into homes that need it.