Food Bank Sees Increase in Need With 1.4 Million Hands Out Meals in June
Our media partner 10/11 reported that The Food Bank saw a spike in March, and in rural areas, they’re needing more help. “We expect at least 10,000 more people will be needing our services in the next 6-12 months…” said Young. “We started distributing food in 11 new communities we had not previously been in.” As long as the people of Southeast Nebraska need food, the Food Bank of Lincoln will be in their neighborhood with trucks ready to help. “We’ve got a real difficult situation on our hands,” Young said. “The more united we can be around all this stuff, the better job we’re going to do weathering the pandemic.”
At a time when maintaining your health is one of the most important things you can do, having food is the key to success.“Food is a critical part of all of that,” said Scott Young, Executive Director at the Lincoln Food Bank. “During this time of pandemic when we need our community to try and be it’s healthiest, food plays a fundamental ingredient in that recipe.”It’s a sustained emergency response and Lincoln Food Bank said it’s a big task.”We did 11.5 million meals,” Young said. “We’re not really set up to do that, but we did it anyway.”
Distributions are largely drive-through and outdoors. Individuals don’t get to pick and choose what items they want. Walk-ins are also accepted.“It’s really changed our model, nearly completely from what we were doing prior to the pandemic,” Young said. All of this adds up to a 16 percent increase in meals handed out from the last fiscal year. A meal, per USDA standards, is 1.2 pounds of food. “In June we connected people to 1.4 million meals,” said Young. “That’s 49 percent more meal connecting than we did in June 2019.”
