The Contra Costa and Solano food bank is one of the many Bay Area food banks experiencing an increase in demand.
Two-hundred seventy-five thousand residents are currently served per month.
Krystine Dinh, the Marketing and Communication Director of the Contra Costa and Solano food bank, told NBC Bay Area “That’s about one-in-six of our neighbors in need, which is an incredibly large number and really sad as we head into the holidays.”
The demand has increased by 100,000 new clients compared to pre-pandemic numbers.
Half of the new population in need are seniors and a quarter are children.
Contra Costa and Solano food bank spokesperson Cassidie Carmen Bates told KALW “A decline in donation is currently happening in a time where the food insecurity level is hot.”She reports that the food bank has registered a 10 to 20 percent inflation on meat, dairy and poultry items, compared to this time last year.
She adds,“more people are coming to the food bank because of how inaccessible food is to them. But it is also driving up our cost of doing business as a food bank”.
