Food Banks Struggle to Get Donated Groceries

Food banks across the country are receiving fewer food donations as food manufacturers become more efficient and have less surplus to distribute, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The shortages are affecting food pantries nationwide. The Community Food Banks of South Dakota, in Sioux Falls, received 35 percent fewer donations from grocery stores last year, while the Greater Chicago Food Depository, the county’s fourth-largest food bank in terms of food distributed, has 12 percent fewer donations this year than last.

“For years, food just landed in our lap,” says Kate Maehr, executive director of the Chicago charity. Now, she says, “we have to work twice as hard to get half the amount of food.”

Some food banks have made up for the loss by buying food through donation drives, but others are giving out less food overall.

Faye Gilliam, a disabled volunteer at a California food bank who helps out in exchange for a “thank-you box” filled with food, says that the box’s contents have grown smaller over the past few years.

“The donations just seem to be less,” she says, noting that the boxes now contain fewer cans of tuna and vegetables, but more beans.

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