Congrats to Joe Crawford on 30 years with the North Texas Food Bank

Celebrate with NTFB’s Dispatch Coordinator during National Truck Driver Appreciation Week.

It’s not yet 7 a.m. but Joe Crawford has had a full morning.

The North Texas Food Bank Dispatch Coordinator who recently celebrated 30 years with the food bank clocks in at 5 a.m., along with NTFB’s drivers and transportation coordinator. After a quick meeting, he’s in front of his computer, juggling between emails requesting food pickups and Route4Me, the app that helps him build each driver’s schedule for the day.

“Nothing is set in stone,” Joe says. “You come in and you have a route planned but you may need to shift things.”

On this morning, a driver called in sick, so Joe quickly divided and moved his route to other drivers.

He opens his email and reads that a retail donor is offering five pallets of refrigerated items and five pallets of frozen items. That means a box truck, which holds 14 pallets, is plenty big, Joe explains. But, he adds, pulling up the day’s routes, if the donation pickup is on a driver’s way back to NTFB, it can make more sense to have them stop, even if they’re driving one of the food bank’s 12 long-haul semi-trucks.

“It also depends on the availability of the donor,” he says, navigating back to his email to determine that.

Joe first joined the NTFB in July of 1994. He’s been in his current role for five years but prior to that worked in distribution and receiving as well as in the production manager role.

With a strong team of 12 drivers, Joe says he works with a great group of people and that he likes being the one to help keep things moving smoothly as NTFB delivers product to agencies serving neighbors and picks up donations.

“You’re here to try to take care of the people who take care of the people,” he says, adding that he keeps his phone by his keyboard so he can answer drivers’ calls if any issues come up during their routes. “I enjoy the action.”

Joe explains that he grew up in a single-parent household with his mom supporting him and his two siblings. 

“We knew hunger,” he says. “My mom always said, ‘If you wake up in the morning, you’re blessed, and you have to see how you can be a blessing to someone else.’”

When a job opening came up at NTFB 30 years ago, Joe says it seemed like the perfect fit for his skills and the mission his mom charged him with years ago.

“I love helping people,” he says.