Requests for help from food banks have increased through­out Amer­ica, this morn­ing we see a per­spec­tive on the demand from Pitts­burgh. The con­tin­ued loss of jobs across the states has lent to the food banks being used more and more, the largest increase have come from peo­ple in richer, sub­ur­ban areas.

From the Pitts­burgh Tri­bune Review, writer Dav­een Rae Kurutz sur­veyed food banks in the Pitts­burgh area. Rae Kurtz also did some­thing that we don’t often see in arti­cles of this type, she also asked for a quote from a national orga­ni­za­tion, we’ve included that in this snippet.

The line wrapped around the park­ing lot of the food bank as offi­cials expected to give food to about 900 fam­i­lies dur­ing the Decem­ber dis­tri­b­u­tion at its Duquesne ware­house. Typ­i­cally, 500 to 700 fam­i­lies show up for the monthly dis­tri­b­u­tions, said spokes­woman Iris Valanti.

“Peo­ple get strapped not just because of the hol­i­day, but also heat bills,” Valanti said.

The num­ber of peo­ple in South­west­ern Penn­syl­va­nia in need of food this hol­i­day sea­son is up 30 per­cent from last year, offi­cials esti­mate. The Greater Pitts­burgh Com­mu­nity Food Bank, which serves 11 coun­ties in the region, is assist­ing about 100,000 peo­ple monthly. Each month, between 1,500 and 2,000 new house­holds sign up for assis­tance, Valanti said.
…

Feed­ing Amer­ica, a national hunger relief orga­ni­za­tion that has been pro­vid­ing meals for 30 years, served more than 2.6 bil­lion pounds of food to the hun­gry this year.

“This is the worst it’s ever been,” said Ross Fraser, spokesman for the Chicago-based orga­ni­za­tion. “Four years ago was a walk in the park com­pared with what we’re going through now. All of the coun­try is hurting.”

Fraser said the hard­est hit areas in the coun­try include Michi­gan, Ohio, Texas and Florida.

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