Agencies that distribute food to the hungry are gearing up for what they anticipate will be a very busy winter ahead. Brian Barks, spokesman for the Omaha-based Food Bank for the Heartland, says this is the time of year when food drives pick up, but it’s also the season when food is needed the most, as more people in the region are requesting help. “This time last year, we were on pace to distribute almost 15-million pounds of food,” Barks says. “This year, we are on pace to distribute in excess of 16-million pounds of food.”

While donations have thankfully been more plentiful, Barks says the demand for food is even greater. “In Nebraska and western Iowa, approximately 217,000 people are at risk for hunger,” Barks says, “88,000 are children under the age of 18.” The food bank supplies food items to 285 pantries, homeless shelters and soup kitchens in 93 counties across western Iowa and Nebraska. A donation of just five-dollars, Barks says, can provide 15 meals.

(Radio Iowa)