ATLANTA — The need for food across the nation has increased because of the pandemic, according to Feeding America. Now, the need for volunteers across non-profits that help feed communities is high as well.
For decades, non-profit Open Hand Atlanta has served the metro area. Now that it expanded its services to 12 counties over the last six months due to COVID-19, it is looking for volunteers. Because of that expansion, the organization is serving about 2,700 more clients than it normally would.
"Open Hand needed additional volunteers, particularly during COVID because so many of their normal volunteers were high risk or elderly folks who were not able to continue to deliver," said Robert Muething, who started volunteering six months ago.
According to Feeding America, the number of people who are food insecure in 2020 could rise to more than 50 million, including 17 million children.
In Georgia, child food insecurity is up 90 percent in Forsyth County and 80 percent in counties like Gwinnett, Cobb and Cherokee from 2018, according to this map from the Georgia Food Bank Association.
With COVID-19 keeping kids learning remotely at home, a lot of them are not getting meals they usually would get at their schools.
According to the organization, 638,570 children don't know where their next meal is coming from. Many people who lost their jobs during COVID-19 also fear eviction and make food an afterthought.
This issue is affecting people of all ages, especially now that the pandemic has created a larger need for everybody.
"Shut-ins, medical shut-ins, elderly folks, these are folks that pre-COVID may be out and about to some extent," explained Muething, who delivers meals to about nine families four times a week. "Some are just immobile but particularly in the COVID era they need food."
The need in the senior citizen community has also grown. CEO of Meals on Wheels Atlanta, Charlene Crusoe-Ingram, said the non-profit, which feeds senior citizens, currently has more than 300 seniors on their waitlist, on top of the 475 they already serve meals to.
That's a larger number the not-for-profit saw during the start of COVID-19. That's because earlier this year, Meals on Wheels had a partnership with the city of Atlanta, giving them funds to feed more seniors.
The $25,000 Meals on Wheels received was able to help them get 200 seniors off the waitlist for six weeks.
The organization is working on getting a larger kitchen that will allow them to deliver up to 3,500 meals a day.
"We are always struggling to keep up," said Crusoe-Ingram. "We need funds and we need a larger kitchen. That's what we're focused on."