Texarkana Eatery Works Toward Ending World Hunger One Taco at a Time

Not to slight anyone else in our area that donates to charity, far from it, God bless each and every one of them, but this restaurant does it a little differently than everyone else, and this past weekend I got to help.

For Toney Livingston, his wife Sandy and kids Gabe and Maddie, owning a local Tacos 4 Life franchise is more than just being a restaurant owner, it comes with a mission, for each taco they sell, it helps feed hungry kids around the world. They mean that, and proved it once again as they held their third MobilePack since opening in 2020.

There were five, two-hour packing sessions held on Friday and Saturday this past weekend and between all the sessions combined, they packed 108,864 meals. Enough to feed 298 kids for an entire year.

Amazing job.

Everyone had a great time too producing cases of these MannaPacks to be shipped out to hungry children around the world through Feed My Starving Children, a 501 (c)(3)  nonprofit organization.

The team I lucked into, we modestly named the "A-Team," since it consisted of Toney and family members, and a few employees from the restaurant.

We kicked some major food-packing backside too, packing 21 boxes with 4536 meals in a 2-hour session. I don't think they really needed me but they took pity on me and let me help anyway.

Honestly, I'm pretty sure I didn't mess anything up, but I am very grateful to get the chance to get in there and help where I could.

I don't know what all groups were represented there on the Saturday morning shift but I do know there was a huge group from Beach Steet Baptist Church, cause I got to stand on a chair and take their group photo, great job guys.

These ladies did a heck of a job keeping up with the label-making for each packet of food. By the way, I'm told that each pack of food contains enough food mixture for six meals.

Boxed, labeled, weighed, and stacked on the pallet.

Toughest job of the day I think goes to the runners keeping the stations stocked with all the different materials used in creating the food packs and carrying the full boxes back up to the front to get labeled.

Motivational chair clapping and air-guitar to loud, uplifting music... good stuff.

We watched an amazing video about an 11-year-old boy in Africa who is now the head of his household, caring for and feeding his brother and sister. And right there in the video, the very same packs that we were making Saturday morning. If that doesn't make you feel good about what you're doing, nothing will.

Toney thanked the volunteers after the session and the video, and of course, encouraged us to continue wearing our nifty hats the rest of the day.

A little prayer of thanks over the food for those who wanted to stay before it all ended for this session.

Questions

• Do you feel good about what was happening there? You darn tootin' I do.
• Would you do it again? You darn tootin' I will.

After all, I already have the hat!

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