March 24, 2008
Albany -- Hank Young is the food minister for Second Greater Mount Olive Baptist Church and is a regular at the food bank. "We move food from here into our food pantry and give it out in packages," said Young.
But lately he has been running across empty shelves because of lower contributions, most recently the Easter food drive.
"We had hoped to really have a large turn-out for our food drive. And we were disappointed in the fact that not as much food was donated to us," said President, Brett Kirkland.
Every can you donate makes a temporary stop in the food bank before going on to help the hungry of Southwest Georgia. "We serve over 300 hunger-relief agencies. Those agencies come to us for food. And we give it to them for no charge," said Kirkland.
The food bank hands out more than two million pounds of of food every year. Most of those donations come from corporations. "Contributions from companies are down. And that could be attributed to many factors especially high gas prices," said Kirkland.
And the only thing on the rise for the food bank is the need. "With the economy slowing down like it has and the gas prices going up, the need could grow even higher," said Kirkland.
"There are people out in our community who have not eaten today for whatever reason. We see this all over the world, but even in our community. There are people who are hungry," said Young.
And with a slow down of contributions at the food bank, there may not be relief for them. You can click here to help the Food Bank of Southwest Georgia.
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