The New Braunfels Food Bank is embarking on a significant initiative to tackle food insecurity at its roots. The long-awaited Apple Seed Apartments, a housing project spearheaded by the food bank, is becoming a reality in New Braunfels, Texas. This innovative approach recognizes the deep connection between housing and food security, aiming to provide stable housing for working families and, consequently, alleviate food insecurity in the community. While this project is a landmark for the New Braunfels Food Bank, expansion to San Antonio appears unlikely for the San Antonio Food Bank in the near future.
“I would never say never, but I don’t think it’s on the target for us right now,” stated Eric Cooper, CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank, highlighting the distinct focus of each organization.
The New Braunfels Food Bank, an extension of the San Antonio Food Bank, serves Comal and Guadalupe Counties, regions with significant populations outside of Bexar County. Recognizing the critical need for housing solutions, the local McKenna Foundation identified housing insecurity as a pressing issue in the area, as Cooper explained. This insight became the catalyst for the New Braunfels Food Bank to venture into housing development.
Addressing Housing Insecurity: A Direct Approach to Food Security
The stark reality, as Cooper puts it, is that “rent eats first” in households across the nation. This phrase encapsulates the difficult choices many families face when housing costs consume a large portion of their income, leaving insufficient funds for essential needs like food.
National data underscores this point. A report from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies in January revealed that a staggering 22.4 million renter households – half of all renters across the US – were spending over 30% of their income on rent in 2022. Adding to the crisis, the number of affordable rental units (those under $600 per month) dwindled to 7.2 million that same year, a decrease of 2.1 million units compared to a decade prior, according to the McKenna Foundation. This scarcity of affordable housing exacerbates financial strain on families, directly contributing to food insecurity.
“Rent eats first in every household, it just tends to eat everything up, where there’s nothing left over,” Cooper emphasized. “Housing costs can cause food insecurity. People don’t know where their next meal is coming from because they spend their resources on housing.” By directly addressing housing insecurity, the New Braunfels Food Bank aims to disrupt this cycle and create a more stable foundation for families to thrive.
Initially, the New Braunfels Food Bank approached the housing project with caution. The escalating costs of construction in recent years have made affordable housing development increasingly challenging. Despite these hurdles, for eight years, neither housing nonprofits in San Antonio nor other organizations were able to take on the project initiated by nonprofits, the McKenna Foundation and NB Housing Partners. Ultimately, the New Braunfels Food Bank Board of Directors decided to embrace the challenge and accepted the request to lead the innovative housing project, with MB Housing Partners contributing two acres of land for the development.
“We listened, but I think skeptically,” Cooper admitted, reflecting on the initial hesitation. “We do food, we don’t do housing. … [But] what the San Antonio Food Bank does well is people.” This people-centered approach, focusing on community needs and holistic support, ultimately drove the New Braunfels Food Bank to expand its mission beyond food distribution and into housing solutions.
Apple Seed Apartments: Building Stability for Working Families
The $12 million Apple Seed Apartments project will introduce 51 units of transitional, temporary housing specifically designed for individuals and families earning minimum wage. The New Braunfels Food Bank will not only manage the apartment complex but also provide comprehensive support to its residents. These working families will be actively enrolled in various programs offered by the food bank, creating a supportive ecosystem to help them achieve greater stability.
A graphic rendering shows the finished Apple Seed Apartments to be managed by the New Braunfels Food Bank.
Rendering of Apple Seed Apartments, a New Braunfels Food Bank initiative, designed to offer transitional housing and support services to working families facing housing and food insecurity.
While engineering and permitting processes caused some delays in the project timeline, these are nearing completion. With final approval expected from a local utility company, the general contractor is poised to commence construction, anticipated to last approximately one year. Applications for housing at Apple Seed Apartments are projected to open in the spring of 2025, offering a beacon of hope for many families in the New Braunfels area.
The overarching goal of Apple Seed Apartments is to make rent more accessible, offering rates discounted from market value for families earning around 80% of the area median income or less. This aims to support working individuals and families who are diligently striving to make ends meet but are burdened by the high cost of housing.
Cooper illustrated the target resident profile, “A profile could be a nursing student at the nursing school in New Braunfels who just needs a few more years ‘till they graduate, and then they’ll have the salary to live and work in the community,” highlighting the project’s focus on supporting individuals on a path to long-term financial stability.
The economic context of New Braunfels underscores the need for such initiatives. The average hourly wage in New Braunfels is around $18 an hour, which often falls short of meeting the demands of the local housing market, as Cooper pointed out. While San Antonio sees a slightly higher average hourly wage at approximately $22, the challenge of affordable housing persists across the region.
San Antonio Expansion Unlikely: Focus Remains Localized
Despite the pressing need for affordable housing and food security in San Antonio, replicating a project like Apple Seed Apartments within Bexar County is currently not on the horizon. Cooper explained that initiating such a large-scale housing project in San Antonio would necessitate substantial donor investment. Furthermore, the land surrounding the San Antonio Food Bank is not suitable for housing development due to zoning restrictions related to its location within the flight path of Lackland Air Force Base.
Even when land is available through donation or at no cost, Cooper emphasized that infrastructure expenses often exceed the actual construction costs of the apartments themselves. This economic reality presents a significant barrier to developing affordable housing in urban areas.
“I’d be hesitant to take the lead in San Antonio, I think that’s really where I would push or work alongside the great nonprofits and public entities here in our city and figure out how the food bank can help them and their residents in a more holistic approach, rather than the food bank having to take the lead to manage the apartments,” Cooper concluded. This highlights the San Antonio Food Bank’s commitment to collaborative solutions, preferring to support existing housing initiatives rather than directly managing housing projects.
The Apple Seed Apartments project by the New Braunfels Food Bank stands as a pioneering example of how food banks can expand their role to address the systemic issues underlying food insecurity. By providing transitional housing and supportive services, the New Braunfels Food Bank is taking a significant step towards building a more resilient and food-secure community.
