Need For Food Services Grows

By Natalie Neumann

The Capital Area Food Bank is distributing 5 million more pounds of food than two years ago. But the need for food continues to grow.

Volunteers sort through donated food and medical supplies at the Capital Area Food Bank in Northeast D.C. In another part of the warehouse, local agencies and pantries are gathering food for their communities.

Lynn Brantley is President of the Capital Area Food Bank. She says more people are turning to them for help.

"This is a very tough economy. I have been working on hunger issues 37 years and I have never seen a time quite as rough as now," says Brantley.

Today, the consulting firm Deloitte will release a study showing where food is most needed and plan to help the food bank distribute where need is high.

Linda Solomon is a consultant with Deloitte. She says the study shows that specific wards in D.C. continue to have high concentrations of working poor who are hungry, but there are new concentrations in rural areas of Prince George's County in Maryland and Prince William's County in Virginia.

"The challenge is that there are not many agencies, mainly food pantries to serve those communities," says Solomon.

Solomon will meet with the Food Bank's management to devise a plan to reach out to those areas.