Low income Rhode Islanders who seek help from emergency food banks are still going hungry. That’s according to a new report from the Rhode Island Community Food Bank.
More than 100,000 households in Rhode Island receive food stamp benefits. Rhode Island Community Foodbank CEO Andrew Schiff says that number has climbed significantly over the past seven years. So has the number seeking help from food pantries.
“We have 59,000 people turning to food pantries and meal programs that are member agencies of the food bank every single month. And yet low income families still miss meals.”
Schiff says an analysis showed that despite the help, low income Rhode Islanders are missing 33 million meals a year – based on the premise that everyone should have three meals a day.
Schiff’s organization looked at the number of Rhode Islanders living around the poverty line as well as the number receiving food stamp benefits and help from emergency food pantries. Those numbers often overlap. He says the number of people his member food pantries have served over the past seven years has doubled, to nearly 60,000 a month. One in four Rhode Island households is enrolled in the state’s food stamp program.
Schiff says he’s hopeful Congress will pass a measure to increase food stamp benefits.
