Helping Put Food On The Table

Helping Put Food On The Table

I’m Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

Many people this time of year struggle to put food on the table for their families. Melissa Cloninger, Director of Donor Relations with 2nd Harvest in Spokane, talks about how this is an especially difficult time for them as well.

CLONINGER: Our needs are always about having enough food, being able to resource enough food to help people in need, and it’s also about having enough funds to transport, repackage and then distribute that mostly donated food to the neighborhood food banks - meal programs that we serve throughout eastern Washington and north Idaho.

Cloninger says that this year’s needs are high due to a still struggling economy and the loss of federal program and unemployment benefits.

CLONINGER: Although many people have gone back to work, unfortunately many of those folks that we are seeing have gone back to work at a reduced wage. Thousands more are due to loose their unemployment benefits at the end of this month. We believe that those folks are going to turn to us asking for help to fill that what we call missing meal gap.

Cloninger says that their costs for transporting, repackaging and distributing that much food is going to be roughly $80 thousand.

CLONINGER: So we are asking the community to help us raise an additional $80 thousand the month of December in order for us to provide what we think is going to be an additional 400 thousand meals, the equivalent, during the month of December and January. For those who are able to give a little more, for those who are able to stretch their giving, if they made a gift last year and they can give a little bit more this year we’d be deeply appreciative.

That’s Washington Ag Today.

I’m Lacy Gray on the Ag Information Network.