COVID-19 means food banks need more donations this year
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Food Bank for Central & Northeast Missouri is working to continue distributing food safely to families and individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The organization's website said the food bank has 140 partner agencies, including local food pantries and soup kitchens, that have been essential in distributing food to community members.
President and CEO Lindsay Lopez said this year has been even tougher as the demand for food has increased.
"We need the contributions now really more than we have have before, we have seen an increase in the amount of people we are serving throughout this pandemic, many who are visiting food pantry's for the very first time," she said.
Central Pantry served 2,000 more people than they did last year in October, the partner agencies have seen a 6% increase in the number of people served just in the last month and more than 1 million Missourians are considered food insecure, which is up nearly 190,000 from this time last year, Lopez said.
The food bank is a member of Feeding America, which gives the organization the opportunity to work with manufacturers, wholesalers, processors, growers, retailers and restaurants to receive donations and food at low costs.
Lopez said these partnerships are especially important this year because more families are in need of food. The coronavirus pandemic has led to more unemployment as business has slowed in many industries, particularly hospitality and entertainment.
"We appreciate contributions of food and never discourage those but the truth is we can do so much more with the dollars that we take in, because of the purchasing power we have we can take one dollar and turn that into $21 worth of groceries," she said.
Dan Shaul, the State Director for the Missouri Grocers association, said small turkey's are hard to find right now. He said people are looking for alternatives to turkey this Thanksgiving.
"We just have to improvise the retailers have done a great job and the suppliers have done a great job making sure there is product available," he said.
Shaul said consumers might have to be flexible this year.
"I think there are some great opportunities on how you can do different things to use a larger turkey instead of just a small turkey," he said.
To keep volunteers, staff and those receiving donations safe, Central Pantry has added a drive-in option to the open store for collecting and handing out donations.
Central Pantry has a website for people who are considering making a contribution to the food bank or those who are in need of a donation this holiday season and beyond.
