Lindsay Lopez, president and CEO of the Food Bank for Central & Northeast Missouri, wants to raise awareness and inspire action around food insecurity.
“We are so inspired by the generosity of this community and all of the many partners who want to support us in raising awareness about food insecurity,” she said.
She was among volunteers and staff of The Food Bank, along with ambassadors from the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, to commemorate Hunger Action Day on Friday.
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Columbia Mayor Barbara Buffaloe issued a proclamation in honor of the day.
“I encourage all of us to spend the gift of time, food or funds to help raise awareness on this issue,” she said.
Feeding America marks September as Hunger Action Month. The Food Bank for Central & Northeast Missouri is part of the network of 200 Feeding America food banks. A food bank is akin to a wholesaler for partner agencies and other organizations that provide meals and food, such as through soup kitchens or local pantries, Lopez said.
“We are not on the front lines of distribution most of the time. We rely on those other partners,” she said.
More: This resurrected club at Columbia College started a campus garden to benefit The Food Bank
While the event Friday was not a kickoff for further events, it was about raising awareness, Lopez said.
People and businesses were decked out in orange for the day.
“In Boone County, 14% of all residents are considered food insecure. They lack access to nutrition on an ongoing basis,” she said, adding the same stat applies to school-aged children. “Together we can change that.”
To address this, The Food Bank works with 30 partner agencies, such as Voluntary Action Center, Welcome Home and The Salvation Army, among others. It also has Central Pantry, which The Food Bank owns and operates, serving upward of 10,000 clients per month.
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“Last year, we served over 4.2 million meals in Boone County alone. The Food Bank now serves 13,500 additional people each month than we did over last year,” she said, adding food insecurity will only continue to increase due to price inflation of food. “… What we hear over and over from people that utilize our services is they are having to make the choice between paying for food or paying for medicine, child care, their rent or mortgage and transportation costs.”
The Food Bank itself is feeling the impacts of food price inflation.
“We are spending three times more to purchase food than we were pre-pandemic with no end in sight. We are spending two to three times more on transportation costs than pre-pandemic with no end in sight there, either,” Lopez said.
Finding ways to help
Local entities such as Goldie’s Bagels, Sparky’s Homemade Ice Cream, Shelter Insurance and the City of Columbia had specials or marked the day in other ways.
For Goldie’s, any contributions to its Neighbor Account on Friday were donated to The Food Bank.
More: How Goldie’s Bagels in Columbia went viral with fund to offer free bagels to those in need
Those who are unable to pay can get something to eat or drink and ask for it to be charged to the Neighbor Account. A sign about this program recently went viral, and the balance was paid down. While Goldie’s doesn’t want to take contributions when there isn’t a balance, owners realized there is another way they could help.
“When people want to do something to help their neighbors, it is hard to turn that away,” Goldie’s wrote on social media.
After Friday’s donation to The Food Bank, Goldie’s plans to find other ways to contribute excess Neighbor Account funds.
Sparky’s brought back a popular flavor, carrot cake, for its contribution to Hunger Action Day, while the City of Columbia’s Keys to the City sculpture and Shelter Insurance’s fountain were turned orange.
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“We’ve been told that is a flavor they don’t bring out very often and it is really popular. We are excited they did that for us,” Lopez said about Sparky’s contribution.
Charles Dunlap covers local government, community stories and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at [email protected] or @CD_CDT on Twitter. Please consider subscribing to support vital local journalism.
