Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank says the need is higher than ever
The 43rd annual KDKA-TV Turkey Fund is underway. Every Wednesday from now until Thanksgiving, we'll share stories about why your donations to the Turkey Fund are so important.
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank says this year's need is more now than it's ever been.
"We are seeing more families, more need in the community than ever before. In the last year alone, we've seen a 25 percent increase in overall food insecurity in southwestern Pennsylvania," said Brian Gulish, the vice president of marketing and communications for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.
Remember the long lines for food during the early stages of the COVID pandemic? Gulish say as hard as it might be to believe, that was nothing.
"When you compare the food that we were distributing during COVID to the food that we're distributing now, we're actually 16 percent higher than what we were distributing during the peak of COVID," he said.
Gulish says inflation and the ever-increasing prices of groceries are just too much for so many people in our area. And he says don't be mistaken: this isn't just a problem for people who are unemployed or low income.
"Some people work two jobs, and they still need help putting food on the table," Gulish said.
In the last year, the food bank has distributed 43 million pounds of food, and they're expecting that number to go up this year, maybe as high as 50 million. And the food that comes from the food bank isn't just canned and boxed goods anymore. Nearly 40 percent of the total food distributed in the last year was fresh produce.
"Not only do we want to put food on the table, we want to stabilize individuals' lives and give them healthier options so they have the food that they need to thrive," Gulish said.
At the food bank alone, not counting all of its hundreds of community food pantry partners, nearly 17,000 people called for help in the last year.
"Food is a basic human right. One in eight individuals right now, including one in six children, are food insecure," said Gulish.
Gulish says that means someone who lives on your street, maybe even someone you know, is likely food insecure. Although he says many people are too embarrassed to admit it.
The food bank, its various food pantries and all of their hundreds of volunteers are working hard to break that stigma and also eliminate all the barriers people have to getting the food they need to survive.
Gulish says one of the things that helps, especially as we head toward the holidays, is the KDKA-TV Turkey Fund and your generous donations to it, year after year.
"It means the world to us. It means the world to our volunteers and our donors. Everyone steps up and goes a little above and beyond during the holiday season to make sure that any person in any community has that food they need. It takes a community to feed a community, and that's what we're doing," said Gulish.
And now is your chance to help by making a donation to the KDKA-TV Turkey Fund. Go to any PNC Bank, and they'll match all donations of $50 or more. Or you can donate digitally by texting "KDTURKEY" to 50155 or by going to kdka.com/turkeyfund.
We're also still accepting checks, just like Turkey Fund creator Al Julius did. You can mail them to P.O. Box Thanks, Pittsburgh, PA 15230.
And from all of us at KDKA-TV, thank you!
