The holidays are just around the corner and food banks are trying to keep up with rising demand for food year-round. Christie Smith reports.
The holidays are just around the corner and food banks are trying to keep up with rising demand for food year-round.
Krystine Dinh with the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano said that donations are down. She added the need has been building in the community.
“The food bank is currently serving 275,000 residents between the two counties, on average per month. That’s about 1 in 6 of our neighbors in need, which an incredibly large number and really sad as we head into the holidays,” Dinh said.
Before the pandemic, Dinh said the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano was serving about 178,000 people a month. Some faced job losses. Now, it’s inflation and paying more for food and gas.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
“It’s really the perfect storm. Donations are down year over year by 20%, which is really troubling but maybe not surprising,” she said.
Experts said that people around the country will find inflation impacting nearly everything at the grocery store this holiday season.
“There is no question that this year, Thanksgiving is more expensive than ever before,” said supermarket guru Phil Lempert.
From potatoes to canned vegetables, prices have shot up this year compared to last and the need for assistance remains high.
“The cost of turkeys for us is up 41%, which is huge. We’re trying to provide that to our clients. It’s a small thing but everyone likes to have some sort of tradition during the holidays,” Dinh said.
The food bank said if people want to help, there’s several ways they can.
“They can go to our website and sign up to, volunteer with their families. They can certainly help by donating money, every dollar provides two meals for our neighbor in need. They can also come by and drop off food,” Dinh said.
For more information, visit foodbankccs.org.
