Food Bank of Northeast Georgia holding Fall Fundraiser

The Northeast Georgia Food Bank is launching its Fall fundraising campaign hoping to raise $100,000.

According to Food Bank Executive Director Chuck Toney, this year’s them is “Help Us Help Them. The Need Remains.”

Toney said the goal is to raise enough money to provide funding for food through the beginning of 2021.  He noted there’s been a 40% increase in the demand for food from their 230 agency partners since the pandemic began.

“If you look at the numbers of people served, from January to June last year we served about 80,000 people. That same time this year that doubled to 160,000. So, most of those people are new to the system,” Toney said.

Toney said communities throughout the 14-county area responded generously when the pandemic first hit in the spring.

However, since then donations have fallen off but the numbers of people and families needing help have not.

In fact, Toney said they expect the extra need for food will not taper off until at least next spring.

“At least January and well into the spring and early summer. I don’t see the need for food tapering off anytime before then,” he said. “So the more financial support we have from our communities, the more people in our communities we can serve.”

The Food Bank of Northeast Georgia this year has suspended their annual Hunger Bowl due to COVID-19 but have replaced it with a Virtual Food Drive on their Website that anyone can participate in.

To make a contribution to the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia’s Fall Fundraiser Virtual Food Drive you can go online to foodbanknega.org.