Bay Area food banks are battling to survive amid widespread inflation in the United States.
Other businesses have combated the inflation with increased costs, but food banks are unable to follow suit as thousands rely on them for free or low-cost meals.
Angela Wirch, the Director of Food Sourcing and Allocation at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, explained that before the pandemic they were feeding 32,000 households each week. After, the amount climbed to 55,000.
Wirch watched as products previously priced at $.35 per lb. soared to $2 per lb. "It’s impacting our availability of getting that product out into the community because we can’t get it into our food bank," she stressed.
The food bank has implemented some strategies to combat the recent uptick.
"We try our best to rotate the protein as much as we can. We will run meat one week, such as chicken, and then we will run eggs the following week," Wirch said. "It helps to balance those costs."
The food bank also relies heavily on loyal sponsors.
"Our development team does a great job of reaching out to our sustaining donors and reaching out to new donors," Wirch said. "Any bit really helps."
Overall, the Food Bank’s goal is to keep their customer base well-fed. Even with the increase in client load and prices, the food they provide weekly has not diminished.
"Our participant base is committed to providing a protein each week, a grain each week, and a variety of produce items," Wirch affirmed. "Fortunately our produce supply is very strong thanks to the farm to family network that we work with, known as the California Association of Food Banks."
Despite the challenging times, it is clear that the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank is not going anywhere.
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