HOUSTON – The Houston Food Bank is apologizing to a local church after delivering a truckload of spoiled produce.
"We clearly failed in this case," said Brian Greene, the President of the Houston Food Bank.
John Pyles, a pastor with Tabernacle of Praise Family Worship Center, told KPRC 2 that the Houston Food Bank delivers approximately 10,000 pounds of produce to them every two weeks on Saturday that the organization then distributes to needy families.
"It's critical for their survival. They go from one distribution to another distribution just trying to make ends meet," said Pyles.
On Saturday, the pastor said they received a truckload of spoiled produce; more than half of which he said they had to send back.
"A number of them were rotten. Even to the point that there were maggots in part of the food," said Pastor Pyles.
"When that product was loaded on the Friday night before distribution, items that shouldn't have been put on were put on and the truck did not look in appropriate condition. Both things were marked on the inspection sheet as being okay when they were not. This is very embarrassing, this is not what we want to do," said Greene.
The Houston Food Bank told KPRC 2 it will take a look into the inspection process of the deliveries so this does not happen again. The organization also said it would reimburse the church the $200 delivery fee.