Contributed Photo
The food bank’s Waterbury warehouse.
Supplies are running low at the Connecticut Food Bank, which issued a public plea for donations this week.
The Connecticut Food Bank serves 650 food-assistance food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and day programs in six Connecticut counties, including New Haven county. Its food supply has dwindled in recent weeks due to dropping donations in the face of consistent demand, according to a press release.
The food bank announced this week that it is running a “virtual food drive” on its website to try to raise money to buy food to give away this summer.
Summer is the time of highest demand on the food bank, said executive director Nancy Cunningham in the release. With children on school vacation, parents need to come up with more food to feed them lunch that they’d otherwise get in school.
Last summer, the food bank got a one-time $593,000 federal allocation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture because of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. That money is not available to the food bank this year.
According to the food bank:
“Summer’s coming. But for some Connecticut families, it won’t be a vacation. It will be a struggle to come up with the extra meals to feed their children, who won’t have access to school meals. You can help thousands of children in Connecticut who could face three long months of going hungry. Visit www.ctfoodbank.org and make a donation. For every $10 you give, we can provide enough food to make lunch for 34 kids.”