Variant has food bank official worried
Like any classic
horror villain who won’t die, no matter
how hard you try the pandemic won’t go
away. And with the emergence of both a
delta and now the Omicron variants (which is closing international travel for the
second time in as many years), there’s a distinct possibility things will get worse.
This year was already bad enough for Tommie Harner, CEO of the West Ohio Food Bank.
“Initially when we started [food distributions] were going strong, we had a lot of distributions, a lot of need,”
she said. “During the summer time it eased up just a little bit when we all thought that the coronavirus was getting better.”
But the number of first-time visitors to the food distributions has increased recently, partly because of increased prices for utilities and partly
because as the economy grows the cost of food is going up.
The new virus variants worry her, and she believes
more people will be visiting the food bank. Currently WOFB has enough supplies to serve everyone in need, but she’s still worried.
“Before Thanksgiving I wanted to order some canned turkey, just so we could have it,” she said. “It’s a nice shelfstable item, it’s still a protein item for individuals. “But
because there wasn’t enough
of that product I had to switch to chicken.”
Harner recently ordered another round of shelf-stable chicken, but the price had
increased significantly over a few weeks.
Harner also noted the number of visitors either to the food bank or one of their distribution events has increased from pre-pandemic levels. A big reason for that is changing family dynamics.
“We’re seeing a lot of grandparents, great-grandchildren right now,” she said. “Or they
have their adult children and grandchildren that have had to move in with them for different circumstances. We
continue to see that need just going up and up.”
This year alone, out of the 30,000 unduplicated individuals/families the food bank
served, close to 20,000 were new families who had never been to a food distribution.
“Even if they’re working they’re living paycheck to paycheck
because of the price of gas, and now that we’re getting into the winter months your
electric bills, your gas bills are all increasing as well,” she said.
Another concern the new delta and omicron bring: staffing.
“Initially when COVID came out and we
did have the National Guard… we did lose a lot of volunteers just
because they did not feel safe,” she said.
Because WOFB has a staff of 14, any loss
in volunteers hits hard, and Harner doesn’t
expect the guard to come a second time.
“I have not heard anything about any possibility of that happening again, and I think it would have to
be a pretty serious situation for that to happen again,” she said.
Currently WOFB is looking for more volunteers. Anyone interested can contact the organization at 419222-7946.