In the last year, demand at the Great Plains Food Bank has risen to alarming heights.
CEO Ann Prifrel says a record 186,366 people in North Dakota and Clay County, Minnesota turned to the Great Plains Food Bank for food assistance in the last fiscal year. This amounts to a 16 percent increase.
"It's record levels in the history of the 44-year history of the Great Plains Food Bank. This past year, we distributed 15.4 million pounds of food, which was a four and a half percent increase - keeping in mind, there was significant reductions to federal food assistance programs, through the emergency food assistance program. We received, because of these cuts, nearly one million fewer pounds of food."
Prifrel says supporters have generously stepped up – in monetary and food donations, as well as donated time – to help meet the demand.
She says one of the more alarming trends in the numbers from this past year were how many children were food insecure.
"This year in particular was more pronounced that children... childhood food insecurity increased by 22.9 percent, while the child population remained essentially flat, growing by less than one percent. So what this is telling us, is it's the families, and often these families are working - it's just getting more and more difficult to meet the growing costs they are faced with."
Prifrel says community members are invited to become part of the solution to help hungry neighbors by visiting the Great Plains Food Bank website.
