Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff Lauren vog Obam here. This episode is part of our ongoing series surrounding the novel type of coronavirus identified in which causes what's therefore being called COVID nineteen. Because everything is a little less scary when you understand it better. With children at home and countless adults out of work, food pantries and food banks are more important than ever for many Americans. They've been the difference between eating and
not eating for years. With the novel coronavirus pandemic, that demand for food could soar higher than we've seen in our lifetimes, And so what do we do to ensure these essential local food pantries stay afloat? Honestly, it won't be easy. We took, for example, our local Atlanta Community Food Bank, which as one of the ten largest food banks in the world, distributes more than sixty million meals to more than seven people across the Metro Atlanta area
and North Georgia. But maintaining those numbers isn't its only concern. The food bank is usually staffed by hundreds of volunteers. Now it has zero. It discontinued its volunteer programs to help curb the spread of the virus, and the staff is brainstorming new approaches to tackle COVID nineteen head on. We spoke with Kyle Wade, President and CEO of the
Atlantic Community Food Bank. He said, we have to adopt distribution methods and minimize the number of workers coming in and out, and instead of asking people to come into pantries to shop as they would in a grocery store, we're asking pantries to prepackaged food into bags and boxes for drive through distributions where the client never leaves the car.
Other food banks across the country are similarly adapting. In Ohio, one of the earliest states to impose restaurant closures and self isolation rules, food banks stopped serving hot food and began distributing brown bag grabb and go meals. According to ABC and Toledo, staff members at local food pantry Helping Hands of St. Louis are wearing gloves and in some case masks, and they're using tape on the sidewalk to show clients where to stand for proper social distancing while
waiting for food. Their team had to stop accepting donations entirely. After curbing its volunteer program for safety and harvest, Hope Food Bank in South Carolina shifted its distribution model to drive through only to limit person to person contact with COVID nineteen shuttering businesses across the country, The need to feed the hungry grows rapidly at the same time grocery
stores are overrun with scared shoppers. Though rest assured supply chain experts say that toilet paper supplies will be restocked and general food supplies should become more normal as panic buying subsides. So how will food banks access the bulk of supplies they need? For one, Wade says, the Atlantic Community Food Bank will lean heavily on partner farmers. He said, farms have excess produce and that's a big part of our supply chain right now, so we'll rely on that
even more. Because of pre existing grocery store partnerships, food pantries can source bulk products quickly and with better margins than consumers, and that's why food banks around the country are asking community members to donate funds instead of food. Wade said, you can give me a can of food that costs you a dollar or you can give me a dollar and I can get nine cans of food.
This is the same even outside disaster times. For the Atlanta Community Food Bank, funds are also more essential than ever because they, like many other nonprofits, have had to cancel fundraising events. In March of twenty nineteen, their Hunger Walk run generated eighty thou dollars with ten thousand participants, but this year it's been canceled. School closures across the country could leave up to thirty million kids without meals,
according to CNBC. That's because the National School Program feeds up to thirty million children per day, the correlated Breakfast Program feeds fourteen point seven million children daily, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program serves more than six point one million children. With schools closed, national and local groups are doing their best to keep children fed. In North Carolina, for example, No Kid Hungry and See is
continuously updating a list of free school meal locations. In northern Kentucky, restaurants like Poseidon's Pizza Company are supplementing local school cafeteria efforts by offering free small pizzas to k through twelve kids. According to Fox nineteen, celebrity chef Jose Andres turned his New York City and Washington d C Michelin starred restaurants into take away kitchens to help those
in need. Employees are asking for seven dollars per meal, although those who can't afford to pay don't have to. Andreas is also working with other restaurants to serve as community kitchens to cook for World Central Kitchen, and he's calling on more to do the same where possible, and food pantries can help with this too. The Atlantic Community Food Bank is bringing supplemental food to five local school districts, adding to the resources local cafeterias have in place for
daily meals for children and their families. Wade said, we're providing about ten thousand pounds that's kilos of food per week per site right now. That's about a quarter of a million pounds of food we expect to provide these schools altogether. The Feeding American Network, which the Atlantic Community Food Bank is a partner member of, is taking unprecedented steps to insure its members are able to feed people
in their local neighborhoods. Feeding America launched a COVID nineteen Response Fund, a national food and fundraising effort to support
people facing hunger. They're working with government leaders to insure its response include support and flexibility for federal nutrition programs, ensuring that the twenty two million children who rely on school meals have access to food outside of the classroom, building an inventory of emergency food boxes to just tribute to food banks as need increases, and providing emergency grants
to food banks. As food banks rushed to meet increased demands, They're doing so without one of their loyal donor groups, restaurants, which are largely either closed or operating with limited menus of takeout and delivery only, and have had to lay off many employees. Waite says that the local restaurants are essential partners for the food bank, but it's not the
food donations from them that he's worried about. Quote, since restaurants are increasingly skilled at eliminating waste, the food from restaurants is a tiny component of the food we distribute. Our hearts are breaking for our restaurant partners and the industry because we know many of the people will serve in the months and years to come will be people in that industry. But for organizations like the Atlanta Community
Food Bank, a little goes a long way. Big donations from celebrities like Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, who gave a hundred thousand dollars to the food Bank and to Giving Kitchen, which is an Atlanta nonprofit that provides emergencies. This int two food service workers will keep many Georgians fed. But Wade acknowledges that times are tight. You don't need a huge bank account to make a difference, he said. Even if you can't donate cash, you can spread the
words so people know about the food Bank. The need is tremendous. Everyone wants to help, and even letting your network know about the food bank services can make a difference. Today's episodes written by Stephanie Vermilion and produced by Tyler Klang. For more on this and lots of other topics, visit how Stuff works dot com. Brainstuff is a production of
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