Giving back
Helping meet a massive hunger need
Job losses and school closures are largely to blame for a surge in demand for food, due to stay-at-home orders, as well as health concerns.
Handling high demand
“Never seen anything like it.”
“It’s a wave of need.”
“A perfect storm.”
Those are the words of some of the people who work for food banks around the world, in media reports in recent days, about the number of people seeking food due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Feeding America is one of the largest organizations in the middle of it all, with its network of 200 member food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs. We talked about the situation with Katie Fitzgerald, Feeding America’s chief operating officer.
“Our food banks are telling us that 40% of the people who are coming for emergency food assistance have never come to get that kind of assistance before,” she says.
Watch our entire interview, here, to get her perspective on how food banks are handling the demand.