While giving thanks, please give help to neighbors in need, too
As families gather around the table to give thanks and break bread with loved ones — potentially for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic — it is important to remember that many families may not be able to do the same. To ensure families spend more time focused on being together and not worrying about where their next meal will come from, our community needs to come together to not only give thanks, but to give back.
Hunger does not just happen during the holidays. In fact, many families who come to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank to put a turkey on the table are facing a crisis in putting food on the table every day. The struggle isn’t always obvious. We hear the quiet whisper of hunger from those we serve. It’s a young parent watering down formula. It’s a senior watering down a bottle of ketchup to make tomato soup.
The mental and physical health of our neighbors is at risk, and with the help of the community, we can make sure we all have the fuel to get through life’s struggles together. As we all lend a hand to support our neighbors in need this holiday season, it is critical to provide support once the new year begins. To ensure families can put food on the table yearround, we must continue to strengthen partnerships between community members, businesses and our policymakers.
The three rivers region knows crisis comes in many forms, often unexpectedly.
Some of the most defining images in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic showed lines of cars as far as the eye could see waiting for help at local food banks. Those cars that many watched on the evening news were filled with families, including children, facing hunger. They included people receiving food assistance for the first time and others who had been to a food pantry when they fell on hard times in the past. Those cars illustrated the economic hardships challenging so many people on an enormous and overwhelming scale.
The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank – like many food banks across the country – worked overtime throughout the pandemic to meet that rise in the need for food and prevent children and families from going hungry. Since 2019, we’ve seen a 31% increase in the need for food assistance and our region is not alone. In fact, 94% of our sister food banks across the Feeding America network reported an increase in the number of people served compared to 2019.
Our country is now anxious to return to “normal” and focus on recovery. However, as families in
southwestern Pennsylvania now work to recover from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of our neighbors remain unable to put food on the table. With rising food prices, the challenges for many people trying to feed themselves and their families have only increased. We know a sacrifice with food is a sacrifice in life. It’s a child who is distracted in class. It’s a mother telling the kids, “the kitchen is closed.” It’s an adult who has to choose between buying food or the medicine a doctor says will help.
As we gather around our own Thanksgiving tables filled with turkey, mashed potatoes and green bean casserole, let this holiday focused on food serve as a reminder to truly focus on the importance of a meal. Let it serve as a reminder to enjoy the love of food and provide love through food.
We know hunger is whispering in the three rivers region. And while it’s not always talked about, hunger is heartbreakingly a reality for 42 million Americans and 1.7 million Pennsylvanians who do not know where their next meal will come from. To ensure families facing hunger in southwestern Pennsylvania can put food on the table during this unprecedented time and provide security to families in order to prevent food insecurity in the first place, support your local food bank, not just during this holiday season, but throughout the year. As we learned through COVID-19, we don’t always have a choice of when or how a food crisis hits, but we do have a choice in how to respond to it.