Holidays are about family, friends, and food. Thanksgiving is a big feast but sadly not everyone gets to celebrate with a great meal. One in seven people in Utah could miss a meal today. Not knowing where their next meal will be is a reality for one in five children in Utah.
Last year, over 31 million meals were distributed to those in need by the Utah Food Bank. These include different programs, such as mobile pantries, food box program, kids café program, and backpack program, which reach out beyond the Food Bank. Mobile pantries allow for fresh food to be brought to places where there is more need than can be supported by the local pantry. The food box program delivers a weeks worth of food to senior citizens in Utah. One in six seniors face hunger and the Utah Food bank was able to give 40,000 food boxes last year.
The kids café program brings food to after-school programs so kids don’t have to go home hungry. This is directly related to the backpack program. Some kids in Utah only get food at school so the Utah Food Bank has started giving children backpacks with food that they can make themselves over the weekend. These two programs gave over 63,000 backpacks and almost 283,000 meals to kids in Utah.
The hardest time for the Utah Food Bank is summer. When kids are out of school and don’t have easy access to food. This is also when the food bank starts to run low on food.
Hunger is something that affects people all around the world, even in your backyard. This week join HerCampus Utah by participating in a food drive at the University of Utah. Please stop by the Union and join Her Campus Utah in donating cans of food . All of the donations will be taken to the Utah Food Bank to help them keep more families from going hungry.
Utah Food Bank website: https://www.utahfoodbank.org