The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s fourth round of purchases for the USDA Farmers to Families Food Box Program is scheduled to wrap up on December 31.
In October, $500 million was authorized for a fourth round of purchases to be distributed to every state. According to the USDA, the program purchases a combination of boxes to include fresh produce, dairy products, fluid milk and meat products. Because this program will be ending, the Kenai Peninsula won’t see as many food boxes handed out to families in need through the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank.
Executive Director, Greg Meyer spoke to KSRM and said the Food Bank received its last shipment load this past Thursday. “So we have been averaging 2,500 boxes a week. That’s about 90,000 pounds of produce a week. We send our truck up and pick up, and they have also been sending a semi-trailer load down for us. We have been able to distribute that out. We have worked in Homer, then we go to two places in Anchor Point, Ninilchik, Sterling, Nikiski and then we have multiple stops that we distribute in Soldotna and Kenai.”
At this point, it is unknown if the USDA Farmers to Families Food Box Program will carry on into next year. Meyer said it’s going to be difficult. “It’s a really emotional time for us right now and for our pantries because, between the produce boxes and then we’ve also had the two programs with the cities of Kenai and Soldotna with CARES money, we’ve been distributing between 800 and 900 emergency food bags a week since the beginning of September. All of that will stop. It has enabled us to do literally over double what we normally do. We have had an army of volunteers. That part of it has just been wonderful to be a part of. Now we have to face the reality that it stops immediately.”
For the city of Kenai, the program ends this week, but in Soldotna Meyer said a minimized amount will be sent out in January before coming to and end as well. “The city (of Soldotna) has been able to fund a reduced amount of bags that we’ll be able to do each week through the month of January. The CARES Act money has some pretty stringent restrictions on how it could be used and the time frame of how we could distribute it out. They were able to work out that we could carry this through into January in Soldotna. We’ll be doing less than half of the amount of bags that we were doing. The city of Kenai, we have been assembling the bags on Saturday and Sunday and this will be our last week of doing that.”
The Kenai Peninsula Food Bank is calling on the community to support them so they can, in turn, support the Peninsula for those who have depended on them during this pandemic. “We go everyday to pick up food at the stores. Because of how much our restaurants and bakeries are struggling, those donations are down because they’re struggling to keep their doors open. We have seen a reduction, understandably, in the amount of food that we get donated that way. We still are going to do our USDA commodities programs. At this point, those are still at the level that they were, so we can at least maintain the services we have. Our eyes are peeled for any special programs that are coming up or anything we can do that would be able to provide any additional services.”
The Kenai Peninsula Food Bank can be reached at kpfoodbank.org or by phone at (907) 262 – 3111.
