The Surplus Agricultural Grant Program (SAPGP) is an innovative partnership between the Texas Department of Agriculture, the agricultural community, and the Texas Food Bank Network (TFBN). Officially launched in March 2002, SAPGP was created to facilitate the donation of surplus product to feed low-income families across Texas. The program creates a direct link between Texas-based commodity producers, processors, food banks emergency food providers, and low-income families. SAPGP offers growers an incentive to donate fresh produce that would otherwise be left in the field, by offsetting a donor's costs of harvesting and packaging surplus product and supplying the necessary transportation. Since the programs inception, TFBN members have distributed over 35 million pounds of fresh product throughout the state.

TFBN also initiated a pilot project named Texas Fresh Approach (TFA) with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. From its origins in Houston, the statewide TFA initiative now provides hungry Texans with a wide array of fresh vegetables planted and harvested by Texas inmates on surplus Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) farmland. In addition to planting and harvesting, inmates in some areas also glean fields. The produce is transported to food banks for distribution to charitable member agencies throughout the state of Texas. The program, the first of its kind in the nation, maximizes the resources of the prison system and Texas food banks. The result is a grand illustration of how the public and private sector can work successfully together to solve the serious problem of hunger.

Another joint effort between the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and TFBN members results in a “second chance” for offenders to develop job skills and give back to the community. Prison units across the state aid nearby food banks with the product recovery process - sorting, sanitizing and packing donations prior to delivery to agencies. They also assist in shipping and receiving in the warehouse. In 2007, TDCJ offenders worked 106,593 hours and handled 93,926,405 pounds of product at eight food banks in the state.