Maryland Food Bank looking for donations after the holidays

From September until now the Maryland Food Bank Eastern Shore served as many as 11,000 meals a day.

The bins and shelves at the Maryland Food Bank may be filled now for the holidays, but Managing Director Jennifer Small says from January to March statistics show the supplies start to thin out.

“We see a decline in donations,” says Jennifer Small, Managing Director, “We all know when we’re in the spirit of giving at the forefront is how are we going to help our neighbor and hunger of course is one of those basic necessities that everyone is trying to make sure they have food on table”.

Small says in 2015 there was a 30 percent decrease in donations whether that be food or money and that hurts even the day to day operations of running the bank.

Costs for building upkeep, volunteers, and even the packing boxes start add up.

In order to collect the food from various places, the Maryland Food Bank uses a fleet of trucks traveling the Eastern Shore five to six days a week.

“93% of every dollar goes to actual purchase of food,” says Small, “The other 7% goes towards what it cost to actually procure the food so that we have food available so a fleet of trucks that go out for donations”.

With all these costs the Maryland Food Bank needs your help to keep everyone full throughout the entire year.

“We need you to have food drives we need you to raise dollars we need you to volunteer your time so we can adequately sort through out the food that does come in and put it to the community safely and quickly.”