WPRO News and The Associated Press
The Rhode Island Community Food Bank says thousands of Rhode Island residents cannot afford three meals a day despite the improving economy and low unemployment rate.
The food bank released its annual report on hunger Monday, to coincide with Thanksgiving week and update 2016 data on missing meals.
It takes 188.3 million meals annually to feed the 172,000 Rhode Island residents living in households qualifying for food assistance. But, the food bank calculated, their household earnings and benefits cover 177 million meals, leaving a gap of 11.3 million meals annually.
Food bank CEO Andrew Schiff says the number is too high, but it’s down from 33.2 million meals in 2016 because more people are working.
“People are working. Why aren’t they able to move their families out of poverty?” Schiff asked.
“What we talk about in the report is that many of the people that we see at food pantries are working, but they need food assistance because they’re not earning enough to be able to pay all the bills and afford to buy adequate food,” Schiff said in an interview.
The food bank’s network of pantries serves about 53,000 people each month, unchanged from 2018. He called that number “way too many”.
“If we get an influx of new people, new families needing assistance, I’m not sure what we’re going to do,” Schiff said.
