Food bank visits dropped early this year, then shot up, depleting inventories

This time of year, a lot of us are thinking about giving and helping others. And when it comes to food insecurity in the Northwest, many people are struggling. Statistics are hard to pin down, but somewhere between 1-in-6 and 1-in-4 people in Western Washington have had to rely on a food bank this year.

Linda Nageotte is the president and CEO of Food Lifeline, which distributes food and supplies through a network of food banks, shelters, and meal programs. She told KUOW’s Kim Malcolm their inventory levels are down 75% compared to last year.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Linda Nageotte: It's a huge shift, and it's very concerning. We began the year actually seeing the number of folks who were turning to their local food bank decline. And the amount of food that our agency partners were needing from us had gone down a little bit. Then, at the beginning of the summer, we saw some really fast shifts. That coincided with the expiration of several federal support programs that had been helping families make ends meet, things like the Child Tax Credit program, or the universal school meals that were available to all kids regardless of income. Those things expired at the end of the school year last year. At the same time, inflation kicked in. As prices started going up for everyday items, including groceries, low-income families felt the pinch the hardest and began needing to turn to their neighborhood food banks again.

What happened for us at Food Lifeline is really similar. There were several pandemic-era programs that were providing additional support to the hunger relief sector, and those programs expired. The reserves we had purchased with those funds were all depleted by the middle of the summer. What that meant for us is that at the exact same time the need was going up, our reserves were going down. We found ourselves with about a million pounds of food in inventory on a week-over-week basis, where we would typically see more than 4–5 million pounds on a regular basis. So, that's a really big shift.

Kim Malcolm: Do you see this as a temporary problem, or are there longer-term structural changes that need to happen here?

Oh, there are most definitely structural problems and systems issues that need to be addressed. When we think about ending hunger, we do that best through legislative change, policy change, and systems change. There's a lot of work that we'll be doing to try and ensure that we can fix some of the systems that are creating and perpetuating hunger. For example, at the beginning of the state legislative session, we'll be lobbying our lawmakers to enact free school breakfasts and lunch for all kids in Washington state, asking lawmakers to join their colleagues in California and Maine who've recently done that.

We are really excited about the governor's budget, which includes so much support for affordable housing because we know if folks are choosing between rent and food, those investments in housing can help reduce the amount of food need that exists. But in terms of our day-to-day work, to make sure that people's needs for food are met, it feels a little uncertain how long this current situation might be prolonged.

For someone listening to you right now, what's the best way for an individual to help you?

The very best way that an individual can help us is by making a financial contribution. We’ll use those dollars to procure truckloads of fresh produce, dairy, and protein that are really highly needed, things that folks who are operating the food banks and meal programs that we serve tell us are the most needed items. We hope lots of folks in the community can step forward and help.

Listen to the interview by clicking the play button above.