Central Texas Food Bank merges with Shepherd’s Heart, expands Waco services
The June 1 merger folds Shepherd’s Heart into a 64,000-square-foot Waco hub, aiming to push about 3 million more meals a year across nine counties.
Central Texas Food Bank’s merger with Shepherd’s Heart will do more than redraw an org chart. It will fold a long-running Waco partner into a new 64,000-square-foot facility at 1402 Gholson Road, with the goal of moving more food through a wider network without disrupting the children, families and older adults already relying on Shepherd’s Heart’s routes, pantries and referrals.
The merger takes effect June 1, but the relationship behind it dates to 2010, when Shepherd’s Heart became a nonprofit community partner of the food bank. The new Waco site will be Central Texas Food Bank’s first location outside the Austin area, a sign that the organization is pushing farther into regional distribution while keeping the local relationships that make food recovery work. The building is set to include an on-site market, a benefits and emergency services center, a warehouse designed for rapid inspection and distribution, a commercial production kitchen, workforce training, nutrition education and volunteer roles in the market, sort room, mobile pantries and kitchen.
That matters in a city like Waco, where Shepherd’s Heart has already become deeply embedded in the anti-hunger system. The organization says it is the largest faith-based 501(c)(3) food pantry in Central Texas. In 2023, it said it assisted 65,055 families, served 30,419 children through schools and summer feeding sites, and distributed 3,763,275 pounds of food. Its work also reaches well beyond a single pantry line: Shepherd’s Heart says it runs 18 mobile food pantry distributions each month, delivers groceries to more than 1,100 homebound seniors twice a month and has created food pantries in seven local schools.
The food bank has said it already supplies 7 million to 8 million pounds of food each year to local ministries including Caritas and Shepherd’s Heart. KWBU reported the Waco hub is expected to increase distribution by 10 percent across Bell, Coryell, Falls, Freestone, Lampasas, Limestone, Mills, McLennan and San Saba counties, or roughly 3 million more meals a year. For staff and volunteers, that points to a practical shift: fewer separate handoffs, more standardized inspection and distribution, and a larger footprint for reaching high-need neighborhoods.
Shepherd’s Heart’s partnerships with Waco Family Medicine and Prosper Waco suggest the merger will also deepen the connection between food access, health care and poverty reduction. Bob Gager said he could not think of a better place to entrust his legacy of service to the community, while Sari Vatske said the food bank intends to “build on the impressive foundation” Shepherd’s Heart created and address the root causes of hunger and poverty.
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