FOX VALLEY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The need for food assistance grew during the pandemic. Many food pantries say they saw a spike.
Job losses, and a backlog of unemployment benefits early on in the pandemic drove people into food pantries.
“When COVID hit, we saw the need greatly, with grandparents, who had to take their children in, or parents who had to take their college children back in,” said John Nieman, executive director at Father Carr’s Place 2B in Oshkosh.
But then, stimulus checks started to hit bank accounts. When that happened, Father Carr’s went from giving away 100 food boxes every Friday at its food drive-thru, down to about 80.
“A 20% dip, once the stimulus checks started,” Nieman said. “All of our friends here, whether it was the Salvation Army, or the food pantries, they all took a little dip, because people had that extra income.”
The Salvation Army-Fox Cities says, it’s still not seeing as many people, compared to the early months of the pandemic.
“The unemployment backlog is no longer happening, people are able to go out and get jobs that currently were closed, during the pandemic but,” Salvation Army-Fox Cities development and communication director Kristal Knudtson said. “In addition to that, right now the food share benefits are significantly up.”
Knudtson says, one of the FoodShare benefits is the Pandemic EBT. The other is the standard FoodShare program that has increased greatly per child. That will end in September.
“Once those benefits, because of the pandemic, per child in the family end, we do anticipate it to go up, like it did last year, in addition to the holidays coming,” said Knudtson.
At Father Carr’s that’s already happening.
“Now, we see the need going back up again,” Nieman said. “Like for today, we served over 100 cars today here, all getting one box of food, and then they get supplemental food, like pastries, and dairy, and all of that stuff.”
Pandemic and unemployment benefits backlogged aside, food pantries say, there will always be a need.
“There’s always going to be the elderly, who are in need, or people with larger families, who just struggle, and so we try to help them the best we can,” said Nieman.
The Salvation Army-Fox Cities and Father Carr’s both say, they aren’t experiencing any food shortages, and expect donations to continue to pick-up, as well.
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