Page 9 - BusinessWest November 9, 2020

disruption to what he called the “supply chain,” meaning donations of food to the agency from individuals and also, and especially, area supermarkets.
“There was a run on those supermarkets, so it was a significant hit,” he recalled, adding that roughly half the food distributed by the agency comes from the private food industry in the form of dry goods, produce, and close to 1 million pounds of meats frozen on the sell-by date.
Beyond this disruption to the supply chain, the Food Bank was impacted by shortages of staff and a loss of many of its distribution sites; several of them closed, including all brown-bag sites for elders and many mobile locations.
Slowly, over time, those sites reopened, while also changing how food was distributed, he noted, adding that as, the spring pro- gressed, the Food Bank adapted to what became a new normal, both in terms of how it operated and with the numbers of people
Mapleline Farm in Hadley is one of several local farms in the region that have adjusted with the pandemic, now supplying the Food Bank with milk in family-
sized packaging.
now facing food insecurity.
Indeed, over the period from March to August, the latest infor-
mation available, the average number of individuals served each month grew to 107,000, Morehouse said, adding that 20,000 of those, or 19%, are people who have never come to a pantry or meal site.
And that percentage of new visitors was much higher, perhaps 40%, in the early weeks of the pandemic, when the layoffs and fur- loughs started climbing, and before those generous unemployment
“We have a jigsaw puzzle of public and private emergency food resources that rely of federal and state funding and private charitable support. We rely on all those sources of support to get the food we need and the resources we need to keep operations afloat.”
benefits kicked in. The numbers then leveled off for a time, but they started climbing again, he went on, adding that, when the new six- month numbers come out, the total people being served should far surpass that 107,000 figure.
Numbers to Chew On
Behind the numbers is the story of how this rising demand has been met with the help of a number of contributing sources — that safety net Morehouse described earlier.
These include the federal government, state agencies, area busi- nesses, and philanthropic
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FEATURE
NOVEMBER 9, 2020 9
efforts like Jeff Bezos’ $100 million gift to Feed-
Food Bank
Continued on page 30
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