SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Food Bank held a small gathering on the one-year anniversary of its largest food distribution ever: over 10,000 cars waiting in the Traders Village parking lot during the heart of the pandemic.
“At first, you’re looking around, you’re curious. I didn’t know what was happening. Not really,” said Emma Ortega, remembering her time waiting in the famously long line.
“I knew there was going to be food distribution, that I understood,” she said. “But I didn’t understand the need for the food distribution.”
Ortega was not used to asking for help. Growing up in the great depression, she was the one helping feed her neighbors from her family’s garden.
“They lived in a little kind of hut-like, made of tin, and on a dirt floor, and we didn’t,” she said. “So mother made sure that they had something to eat every day.”
She says she didn’t know what to expect when she found herself in this line one year ago today, one of thousands waiting for aid from the San Antonio Food Bank.
“Men and women, old and young, all races, different socio-economic strata were in line that day that made up those ten thousand cars,” said Michael Guerra, Chief Resource Officer with the San Antonio Food Bank.
Ortega was invited back to Traders Village to share her experience of the event that caught the world’s attention.
“Everybody made you feel so welcome,” she said. “But then after a while, reality set in: ‘What about the babies that are out there who are hungry? Where are Momma & Daddy getting food from?”
San Antonio Food Bank President Eric Cooper said the images from that day made the world see the pandemic in a new light.
“Those photos said what they data and statistics couldn’t, those photos said struggle, they said need,” Cooper said. “They said what this pandemic was ultimately going to be all about and that’s: basic needs have to be met.”
He said he feels San Antonio was an example of how to handle this kind of disaster.
“London Times, New Zealand, Tokyo, Israel, Japan; all wanting to talk about what happened on this day twelve months ago,” he said. “It birthed ‘San Antonio Strong’ And, um, I’m just so proud of our city.”