The summer months are always difficult for the Food Bank for the Heartland, which has a tough time meeting demand once the warm weather arrives. Spokesman Brian Barks says they put out collection barrels to take in donations of canned goods from Thanksgiving through Christmas, but the June through August time-frame is a challenge. “It is a struggle because people are busy,” Barks says. “Hunger is not a top-of-mind issue in the summer, so we see a drop-off in product donations and financial donations but we must meet the same need, if not greater.”

The Omaha-based agency distributes between one-point-two and one-point-five million pounds of food each month to food pantries in 93 counties across Nebraska and western Iowa. A program in the Omaha-Council Bluffs area delivers hot meals at no charge to 15 locations during the summer. For those outside the metro area, the food bank is holding 20 rural mobile pantries just during the month of June.

“We are distributing more and more food in areas of Nebraska and western Iowa,” Barks says. “There aren’t a lot of job opportunities out in rural communities. The population is getting older. If you’re in Omaha and you need assistance, there are a lot of places where you can go to get help, but if you’re living in a rural community, there’s very limited access to assistance.”

Some families are struggling with higher grocery bills now that school is out and many children aren’t getting free or reduced-price lunches at school. “In our service area, the best data that we have indicates there’s 220,000 people who struggle with the issue of hunger and 91,000 of those are kids under the age of 18,” Barks says. “Unfortunately, we’ve seen those numbers rise a little bit, despite all of our best efforts.”

Given the buying power of the food bank, he says one donated dollar can buy three meals. Learn how you can help at food-bank-heartland-dot-org.

(Radio Iowa)