One New England Challenge

Food Banks and their partners are definitely seeing a significant impact on our work.  They estimate about a 35% increase in food assistance needs, while at the same time,  certain retail donations of most needed items are declining due to increases in consumer demand for the same items (meat and shelf stable staples like canned vegetables and pasta).  As a response, Food Banks have increased food purchasing budgets dramatically, some over 100% increases in addition to distributing millions in direct cash assistance to our program partners to cover additional costs to their distribution models (cleaning supplies, gas cards due to home deliveries, etc.)