Pantries, food banks work to meet need for summer 2021
With the school year over, many kids may now lose a big chunk of their daily meals. Pantries and food banks across the Metro worry that continued high demand for food and slow economic recovery may leave another bout of “summer hunger” for families. Just around the corner of 30th and Hamilton streets, Pastor Eugene Rollerson calls out to cars passing by Greater New Hope Missionary Baptist Church.”If you don’t need it, come and get it for somebody that needs it!” Rollerson said.As drivers leave the church parking lot, Rollerson said he believes food security hasn’t improved much for neighbors or their children.”The demand is very high, ” he said. “Hours have been cut, people have been laid off. people at home, you know, kids are hungry.”Inside the Foodbank for the Heartland, marketing director Travis Carlson said the doubled demand they witnessed in 2020 has only slightly tapered off.”We know that the effects of the pandemic are going to linger, well beyond this month, this year,” he said.Over these next crucial summer months, Carlson said the foodbank could in theory spend an average of $1.5 million dollars each month getting meal boxes and other resources to rural and urban neighborhoods.To help keep up with that demand, volunteers continue to fill up boxes and pallets of meals with enough food to feed a family of four for a week. Eventually, Carlson said, the pallets will make their way to a mobile pantry or to a network partner in all the counties that the Foodbank serves.”We’re really at a pivotal point in the Foodbank and really in our community,” he said, “where we’re encouraged by the signs of relief, but we do worry that that might make the issue of food insecurity fall to the back of people’s minds.”In North Omaha, forklifts keep loading trucks with food inside a warehouse run by the nonprofit food distributor Whispering Roots. Greg Fripp, the group’s founder, said he worries that the current pace of economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, won’t help parents and children who still need a lifeline to healthy food this summer.”Food prices are rising, gas prices are rising,” he said. “So, the price of fuel rises, which eats into disposable income, which means now there’s not as much money to buy food, and if the price of food is also going up, it’s very difficult for people to get access to good, affordable food.”
With the school year over, many kids may now lose a big chunk of their daily meals.
Pantries and food banks across the Metro worry that continued high demand for food and slow economic recovery may leave another bout of “summer hunger” for families.
Just around the corner of 30th and Hamilton streets, Pastor Eugene Rollerson calls out to cars passing by Greater New Hope Missionary Baptist Church.
“If you don’t need it, come and get it for somebody that needs it!” Rollerson said.
As drivers leave the church parking lot, Rollerson said he believes food security hasn’t improved much for neighbors or their children.
“The demand is very high, ” he said. “Hours have been cut, people have been laid off. people at home, you know, kids are hungry.”
Inside the Foodbank for the Heartland, marketing director Travis Carlson said the doubled demand they witnessed in 2020 has only slightly tapered off.
“We know that the effects of the pandemic are going to linger, well beyond this month, this year,” he said.
Over these next crucial summer months, Carlson said the foodbank could in theory spend an average of $1.5 million dollars each month getting meal boxes and other resources to rural and urban neighborhoods.
To help keep up with that demand, volunteers continue to fill up boxes and pallets of meals with enough food to feed a family of four for a week.
Eventually, Carlson said, the pallets will make their way to a mobile pantry or to a network partner in all the counties that the Foodbank serves.
“We’re really at a pivotal point in the Foodbank and really in our community,” he said, “where we’re encouraged by the signs of relief, but we do worry that that might make the issue of food insecurity fall to the back of people’s minds.”
In North Omaha, forklifts keep loading trucks with food inside a warehouse run by the nonprofit food distributor Whispering Roots.
Greg Fripp, the group’s founder, said he worries that the current pace of economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, won’t help parents and children who still need a lifeline to healthy food this summer.
“Food prices are rising, gas prices are rising,” he said. “So, the price of fuel rises, which eats into disposable income, which means now there’s not as much money to buy food, and if the price of food is also going up, it’s very difficult for people to get access to good, affordable food.”
