Meals help want nonetheless prevalent in Dayton area

In the course of the pandemic, The Foodbank bought assist from the Nationwide Guard and employed short-term workers. However because the Nationwide Guard started to section out, The Foodbank employed new workers to assist instantly serve these in want, Truesdale mentioned.

Earlier than the pandemic, The Foodbank had 32 workers. It now has 56 and plans to rent extra.

The brand new workers work within the drive-thru, within the cellular farmer’s markets and within the warehouse selecting and packing orders for his or her associate businesses. There are additionally workers selecting up donated meals, she mentioned.

“We’ve got 5 vans on the highway 5 days per week selecting up at native retail retailer donors and so we’d not have the ability to choose up these objects and people donations and distribute to people if we didn’t have the drivers that we would have liked,” Truesdale mentioned.

Truesdale mentioned the staff do essential work and retaining and hiring extra workers is critical for The Foodbank to proceed to serve these in want.

Montgomery County had greater than 80,000 folks getting meals advantages on the finish of April, in line with Montgomery County Administrator Michael Colbert.

“This grant will assist meet the rising demand for meals,” Colbert mentioned. “The Foodbank has additionally needed to practically double the scale of its crew based mostly on its distribution and this $3 million grant will help cowl the price of salaries and advantages for added personnel.”