VISTA Impact Story: Mackenzie
Mackenzie Wenig
Hunger Free Communities- Bastrop County
VISTA Mackenzie Wenig works with the Bastrop County Hunger Free Communities Coalition, an action-focused alliance of community members working collaboratively to make the most of resources for those experiencing food insecurity and hunger in Bastrop County. The coalition identified resource coordination and communication as a key barrier to clients accessing assistance, as no comprehensive resource existed with up-to-date information on food pantries and soup kitchens in the county. To fill this need and make food assistance more accessible, Mackenzie put together a color-coded calendar of where community members can access food at any point in time in Bastrop County. The calendar will be updated and distributed monthly to other food assistance organizations and human services such as WIC and SNAP offices. The calendar will help close the information gap for the approximately 10,500 Bastrop County residents who are food insecure, by showing them where they can get food, what type of food assistance (hot meals,fresh produce, etc.) each site provides, and the address and contact number of each site.