DAYTON — The Miami Valley’s largest food bank held it’s last mass food distribution of the year, during a time where they are seeing more and more people facing food inequality.
The Foodbank, Inc. hosted the food distribution for North Dayton and surrounding area residents in need of food assistance at the Dixie Twin Drive-In. The event ran from 10 a.m. to noon today.
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Items that were handed out included fresh produce, proteins, and grains. Whole chicken fryers were distributed in lieu of turkeys.
The line of cars waiting to get into the Dixie drive-in stretched down North Dixie towards Butler Township and Dayton.
“This is hard times for everybody. working people non-working, disabled people,” Latanya Clark, from Dayton, said.
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Clark was one of thousands who lined up for the Foodbank’s final mass distribution of the year.
“I appreciate everything they have done for me and my family and everyone in the area,” Clark said.
Amber Wright, with the Foodbank, told News Center 7′s Xavier Hershovitz that they are seeing a major increase in people facing a life crisis that puts them in need.
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“We actually saw an 18% increase just between September and October alone,” Wright said.
At today’s distribution, they were prepared to serve 2,000 cars, with trucks on standby to bring more food if they ran out.
It’s not just mass distributions that are up, their weekly distribution is up too. Last week, they served 565 families.
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“450 would be a more reasonable number. But we’ve been seeing that creep up over the past couple of months,” Wright said.
Wright says they are nearing some of the numbers they hit during the height of the pandemic, which is why donations of food, money, or time are critical.
“Everyone is affected by this and I appreciate everything the food bank is doing,” Clark said.
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