Thanksgiving may be over, but the need for a meal continues on. Connecticut Foodshare announced an emergency expenditure of $500,000 for food purchases through the end of the year.
Food insecurity continues to be a problem in Connecticut and Foodshare is on a mission for the rest of the year to make sure no one goes without a meal.
"We’ve had to go into our emergency reserves. We’ve had to go into our reserves to purchase food to to make sure we’re able to get our pantries through the holiday," said Connecticut Foodshare CEO Jason Jakubowski.
On Wednesday, the organization authorized and announced an emergency expenditure of $500,000 for food purchases through the end of the calendar year.
"Not often that we have a shortage of staple items such as rice, pasta, tuna and peanut butter, but we see where the trends are going heading into the winter months," Jakubowski added.
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Coming off the heels of Thanksgiving, Jakubowski said that the donations were generous, but the need extends beyond the day.
"Collected and distributed 50,000 Thanksgiving meals. People were generous with the funding," he said.
"But as I said throughout the past two weeks, Thanksgiving is only one meal a year and I think we’ve come to the realization that the need has absolutely increased over the last several months," Jakubowski added.
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According to the organization, there is still a massive need with around 425,000 people considered food insecure in Connecticut. One in seven of those insecure are children.
Jakubowski said that the after shock of the pandemic is in full effect.
"We are now in a situation in which we have higher need than usual, but the donations are generally back to where they were pre-pandemic so you’ve got a situation where you got this gap between those those two things," he said.
The organization says the big thing that you can do at home to help is donate. Donations can include money or food. Every little bit helps. More information on Connecticut Foodshare can be found here.
