More Coweta County families with jobs are turning to food banks as rising costs leave them struggling to put food on the table. In the past four to five months there’s been an increase of 15-20 percent in new clients, said Jamar Joiner, Bridging the Gap executive director. The biggest increase is working people whose salaries are not stretching far enough to cover all their needs, he said. But while need is rising, local donations are down, Joiner said. “We’re serving almost 600 families a week,” Joiner said. “We pick up mostly from Midwest (Food Bank Georgia). It’s helped with the shortcomings because (local) donations have decreased.” Still the need is so great that when clients arrive for the food boxes, they have run out of boxes, he said. Backpack Buddies, which fills backpacks with food for children in the Coweta County school system who are facing food insecurity, served more children at the end of last year than it has in years, said Lori Burnett, program coordinator for the nonprofit. “Typically, at the end of the (school) year, our numbers begin to drop as families prepare for summer,” Burnett said by email. “But this year, the number of students we served remained steady. We have also served a record number of students over the summer.” She won’t have numbers for this year until September or October because students will be signing up once the school year starts, Burnett said. But last school year the program served 1,700 students weekly and packed 50,000…
*This content (including text, artwork, graphics, photography, and video) was provided by the third party(ies) as referenced above. Any rights or other content questions or inquiries should be directed to such third-party provider(s).
