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12/2/2024
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Op-Ed: Support your local food pantry to combat growing food insecurity and hunger
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By Rep. Julie A. Casimiro
When many people think about the holidays, delicious and special meals are often the first thing that comes to mind. But this holiday season will be unfortunately very different for a large portion of Rhode Islanders according to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank’s 2024 Status Report on Hunger in RI.
To sum up this sobering and troubling report in one line – far too many of our residents are food insecure and are going hungry on a daily basis.
According to the report, 38 percent of Rhode Island households are food insecure, with even higher rates of food insecurity among communities of color. Low-income Rhode Islanders feeling the squeeze of rising food prices and daily living expenses have skipped over 42 million meals during the year due to unaffordability. And the Rhode Island Community Food Bank and its partners have seen the need for their services grow exponentially this year, serving over 84,400 people each month compared to last year’s figure of 77,600 people per month.
These facts and more paint a disturbing picture of growing hunger in our state that needs to be addressed before the situation becomes far worse.
While the state is doing everything in its power to combat hunger in Rhode Island, sadly its efforts are not enough.
In order to ensure that our families, friends and neighbors have enough to eat during the holiday season and beyond, I implore you to donate to your local community food pantries. These operations are working overtime to feed our residents in need and they can use all the help that they can get.
Whether you can volunteer your time, money or extra food, every little bit helps to keep our children, families and seniors properly fed.
And while food donations are always crucial to a food pantry’s mission, financial donations can be used even further to keep struggling residents well-fed and healthy. Food pantries have several partnerships that allow them to stretch a dollar further than most could imagine, securing much more healthy and nutritious food than simple food donations could generate.
As we enter the season of giving, please consider giving your fellow Rhode Islanders the gift of a fully belly and help ease the anxiety and fear that far too many of us have when it comes to wondering when the next meal will be.
There are many things that have to happen in order to fix this terrible problem, but in the meantime, please support your local food pantries, because they truly are the difference between our residents going to bed hungry every night or not.
Rep. Julie A. Casimiro, a Democrat, represents District 31 in North Kingstown and Exeter.
For more information, contact:
Andrew Caruolo, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401)222-6124
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