First lady Jill Biden arrived at the Houston Food Bank around 1 p.m. on Friday with Texas first lady Cecilia Abbott, according to a pool report.

Biden and Abbott first stopped in the main lobby for several minutes and received a rundown of the food bank’s food distribution process from Nicole Lander, the organization’s chief impact officer. Lander told the first ladies that the food bank distributes an average of 18 million pounds of food per month during disasters, the equivalent of 20 tractor-trailer loads. Lander also noted that one in four children in the Houston area lacks consistent access to nutritious food, according to the report.

Biden and Abbott then moved to a warehouse room and joined volunteers in packing bags of food for the food bank’s Backpack Buddy program, which distributes food on weekends to students who rely on school meals during the week.

Biden packed canned peaches, while Abbott packed boxes of raisins.

They were joined by Houston Independent School District Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan, according to the pool report.

After their first stop, Biden and Abbott moved to a separate room to pack meals for seniors through the food bank’s Senior Box program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and provides a monthly box of food to roughly 11,000 low-income seniors in the Houston area, a separate pool report said.

Biden packed quick oats into boxes. Abbott also helped pack food boxes nearby, wearing a face mask emblazoned with the Texas flag.

Biden toured the Harris County Emergency Operations Center in Houston as the first first stop on his trip in Texas in the wake of deadly winter storms. He was joined by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and other lawmakers and local officials.

"It’s a hell of an operation you’ve got here," Biden said upon arriving to the center.

The director of the center, Mark Sloan, detailed the operations of the facility and of the impact of the winter storms on the region. He said that of the 5 million residents in the county, the storm left 1.5 million people without power and heat and detailed the county's trouble getting water to residents, noting that approximately 3.5 million were without water. He talked about the emergency response, including handing out meals and water.

Biden thanked the workers, saying they were saving lives and "doing God's work."

In a statement shared with Congress, the Biden administration announced Friday that it is creating a new “Khashoggi policy” to impose visa restrictions on any foreign official believed to be directly involved in plots against dissidents, or any “serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activities,” like the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The State Department has identified 76 Saudi individuals who Secretary of State Antony Blinken says have been hit with these penalties. It’s unclear if Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is in that group because visas are confidential under U.S. law. But the “Khashoggi ban,” as Blinken calls it, will apply to their family members as well.

The Treasury Department has also sanctioned one former Saudi official, Deputy Intelligence Chief Ahmad Hassan Mohammed al Asiri, another close confidant of bin Salman, but one who was fired after Khashoggi’s murder. But for now, bin Salman escapes U.S. financial penalties—with many U.S. lawmakers already calling for him to face specific sanctions.

“While the United States remains invested in its relationship with Saudi Arabia, President Biden has made clear that partnership must reflect U.S. values,” Blinken said, adding the U.S. will no longer tolerate these extraterritorial plots and the State Department will begin reporting on them in its annual human rights report.

-ABC News' Conor Finnegan and Trish Turner

Biden was greeted on the tarmac in Texas on Friday by Gov. Greg Abbott who he fist-bumped after touching down for his first presidential disaster visit.

Biden was also greeted on the tarmac by a group of lawmakers including Democratic Texas Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, Al Green, Lizzie Pannill Fletcher and Sylvia Garcia, as well as Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo.

First lady Jill Biden also gave a fist-bump to Abbott and accepted a bouquet of flowers, as Biden bumped elbows with Jackson Lee and Green, who also took a photo of him. Biden stood near the two Democratic lawmakers and chatted for a few moments before moving on to speak with other elected officials.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle

Three of Biden's picks for key administration positions have hearings before Senate committees Tuesday.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing to consider Debra Haaland for secretary of the Interior. If the Senate confirms her as secretary of the interior, Haaland would be the first Native American to serve in a presidential Cabinet and would be the first Native person to oversee an agency that's played a major role historically in the forced relocation and oppression of Indigenous people.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee will consider Xavier Becerra to serve as secretary of health and human services.

Republican opposition to Becerra has been mounting since Biden announced his nomination in December. On Monday, a group of Republican lawmakers penned a letter to Biden urging him to withdraw Becerra's nomination.

The group of lawmakers, including 11 senators and many more members of the House, argued that Becerra is inexperienced and ill-prepared to guide the agency. Democrats have argued that Becerra has extensive experience in health care policy, first as a congressman who oversaw components of Medicare and then as a defendant of Obamacare as attorney general, using that role to add new focus on the issue.

And the Senate Judiciary Committee will resume its hearing, which began Monday, to consider Merrick Garland for attorney general.

Garland received a fairly warm welcome from both sides of the aisle during Monday's hearing, and a few GOP senators expressed their support for Garland. In the first half of his confirmation hearing Monday, he told senators his first briefing once he takes office at the Justice Department will be on the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.

-ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett, Allison Pecorin, Luke Barr and Alexander Mallin