Food banks see higher demand closer to holidays

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - The face of hunger is changing in Baton Rouge, and the president of the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank said the economy is causing them to see more people come to them for help.

“Once we came out of COVID we really thought we were returning to a more normal level and then the increase in prices increases of gasoline when it happened, and we’ve seen that increase continuing since then,” Mike Manning said.

Manning said they are seeing more people 65 and older.

“Louisiana is number one in childhood food insecurity and number three in senior food insecurity, and what we’re seeing now, we’re seeing a lot of seniors coming to the food bank to get assistance because they’re raising their grandchildren, so that’s a double whammy when you have those two big numbers, and we don’t want to be leading those types of categories, so it’s more important for us to continue to help those people,” Manning said.

Getting closer to the holidays, Manning said they need donations now more than ever.

“When you look at people already with a very stretched budget, what are they going to be able to do for the holidays? Or are they going to be able to have things really have a Thanksgiving, or are they going to be able to have Christmas presents for their kids? So, the more we can do to help people and free up their low income to make a difference in their regular lives that’s what we want to focus on,” Manning said.

The Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank has the most demand for protein canned goods and peanut butter.

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