More and more families are reeling from inflated prices of groceries, turning to Loaves & Fishes Community Services to help put food on the table.
Loaves & Fishes seeing significant increase in new clients
“Right now, we’re serving over 8,000 people a week, and it’s an amazing increase because, at the beginning of last year, it was a little over 3,000 people a week. So the number of people that we’re serving has more than doubled in the course of the last year, year and a half or so,” said Loaves & Fishes CEO Mike Havala.
At the same time, the non-profit’s supply of food donated from grocery stores as part of their Food Rescue Program has decreased from 2.5 million pounds to 2.1 million pounds of food, as grocers are also feeling the pinch from higher costs of goods. That dilemma has forced Loaves & Fishes to look for additional solutions.
New Loaves & Fishes Food Supply Task Force looks to find solutions
“We formed the Loaves & Fishes Food Supply Task Force, and the purpose of the task force is to try and reach different groups that have not typically donated directly to food pantries in the past… we’re going directly to food manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, 3PL’s, transportation companies. Really, anybody that’s in the supply chain of the food industry, we’re trying to connect with to see if we can procure more low or no-cost food,” said Havala.
Food Inflation forcing people to make tough decisions
Food prices in the last 12 months rose by 6.7 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which has become a tipping point for families already living paycheck to paycheck.
“It’s a general erosion of their finances because most of their finances or what they spend money on are fixed costs. Things like housing, rent, utilities, insurance, transportation… and they cut things like food because it’s more of a variable day-to-day type of decision,” said Havala.
The rapid increase in clients for Loaves & Fishes is not only in Naperville but across the Chicagoland area.
“We serve all DuPage, Will, Kane, and Kendall counties…and what we know is that one in five people in those four counties are either in low income or in poverty,” said Havala.
How people can help support Loaves & Fishes
While grocery stores continue doing their best to help, says Loaves & Fishes staff, the Food Supply Task Force is trying to think creatively about how to combat this food gap – such as direct from farms – and encouraging the community to help them find new possible sources of food.
“Having a warm lead into a sizable food company can be something that really expedites our supply of food. And so any connections that people have or ideas that they have for us, we’d love to hear those,” said Havala.
Loaves & Fishes President & CEO Mike Havala says other ways people can help are by making healthy food donations in-person or online through their virtual food drive and by donating funds to support the Supply Food Task Force.
Havala said, “It’s not the sudden impact that you had with the COVID shutdown or the Great Recession, but it’s been a month in, month out, erosion of people’s financial situations and really reaching the tipping point with a lot of families that now need help, that maybe didn’t need help a year or so ago.”
For more information, you can visit the Loaves & Fishes website.
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