Page 7 - BusinessWest November 9, 2020

motorists picking up food — it can no longer be distributed indoors — have come to symbolize this pandemic.
And as fall continues and winter approaches, need is only expected to grow, said Morehouse, who cited projections from Feeding America showing that, by year’s end, an estimated one in six residents in Western Mass. (perhaps 127,000 people) will be experiencing food insecurity,
as opposed to one in 10 before the pandemic began, and one in four children. That would be a 40% increase in the number of people overall, and a more than 60% increase in the number of children.
In many ways, such numbers help tell this story. During the fiscal year that just ended
Sept. 30, the Food Bank distributed 14.8 million pounds, or the equivalent of 12 million meals — a 23% increase over the previous year, compared to an average 6% increase year over year. Mean- while, over the past seven months, the increase has been roughly 30% (from 7.3 million pounds to 9.5 million), much higher than the annual increase, obviously, because of the direct impact of the pandemic, and the highest seven-month spike in the agency’s 38-year history.
Behind the numbers, though, is the inspiring story of how the region and its business com- munity have responded to the crisis, said More- house, adding that this response was quick and profound, and it is ongoing.
The biggest question concerns what comes next, and it’s one that’s hard to answer, he noted, adding that many factors will go into determin- ing where these numbers go in the weeks and months to come.
For this issue, BusinessWest talked at length
“
we’re storing food off site, and we’re moving it faster. We’ve brought on additional staff, we’ve purchased another van, we’re about to purchase another truck so we can move food as quickly as possible. The pandemic has put us over the top in a big way, so we’re looking at options for expansion.”
with Morehouse about the mounting problem of food insecurity in the wake of the pandemic and how his agency has responded. Overall, he said this response “is how the safety net is supposed to work.”
Elaborating, he noted that the Food Bank has been able to meet soaring need because fed- eral and state agencies have stepped up and put more food into the system, but also because the region has stepped up as well.
Food for Thought
As he talked about what has transpired since
The warehouse is jam-packed;
Sweet potatoes from local farms are among the many items jamming the shelves and floor space at the Food Bank, which is over capacity due to spiking need.
the hundreds of sites it serves — has become one of the enduring symbols of this pandemic locally. Indeed, just as the bread lines of the mid- 1930s became an indelible image that came to represent the Great Depression, the long lines of
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FEATURE
NOVEMBER 9, 2020 7