The saw record-breaking demand for services during the 2020 holiday season and expects the demand for food assistance to remain high for some time.
The food bank distributed more food in the week before Thanksgiving than any other week in its history, serving more than 5,000 families. That surge continued to close out the year, with more than 3,000 families coming through its distribution line weekly through December.
The continuing increase in need is similar to what happened during the Great Recession in 2008, said food bank President and CEO Kristin Warzocha, even as vaccinations offer a light at the end of the long COVID-19 tunnel.
鈥淲e are absolutely planning on continuing to operate at this very high level through all of 2021,鈥� Warzocha said. 鈥淎nd if the last recession is any indication, I suspect we鈥檒l be at this for even longer.鈥�
After the recession officially ended, Warzocha said, food banks continued to see increased numbers of families coming in for assistance. Those who returned to the workforce were landing lower-paying jobs than before the downturn, she said, and still needed help making ends meet.
鈥淓ven though the recession technically ended and moved off the front page鈥檚 headlines, we were still serving more people than we had before the recession for years after,鈥� Warzocha said. 鈥淚 fear that that could be the case here.鈥�
Over the course of the pandemic the food bank helped more than 45,000 new Cleveland-area families in 2020, Warzocha said, double the number from the previous year. The food bank and its partners have the resources to continue providing aid to more families as the pandemic continues, Warzocha said, with community donations and volunteers helping the food bank keep up with demand.
The recent federal stimulus package and extension of programs such as additional SNAP or unemployment benefits do help to combat food insecurity, Warzocha said.
鈥淎ll of those things should help. That said, they鈥檙e not going to last forever,鈥� Warzocha said. 鈥淪ome of those are very time limited, and we know that we are absolutely going to continue to be busy.鈥�
Some assistance programs have already come to an end, Warzocha said. The , which brought 20,000 boxes of food and produce directly from farmers to the food bank and its partners each week, expired Dec. 31.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to have millions of pounds of food to make up for,鈥� Warzocha said. 鈥淎nd we鈥檙e going to have to do, I suspect, even more buying than we did last year. So we鈥檝e got our work cut out for us.鈥�
The Ohio National Guard was deployed to help distribute food to families in March 2020. Those 50 guardsmen will still help the food bank through March of this year, Warzocha said.
鈥淲e absolutely know that we have to take the long view here,鈥� Warzocha said. 鈥淲hile I鈥檓 optimistic and hope for the best, we鈥檙e going to be at this for a while.鈥�
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