The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank (BRAFB) is grateful for summer donations, but says fighting hunger is still a battle.
Throughout the summer, initiatives including "The Stamp out Hunger Drive" and "The Governor's Bowl Food and Fund Drive" brought in much needed support, but it wasn't enough to fill empty shelves at the food bank.
"Of course it helps, but if you consider that we distribute about 21 million pounds of food in a fiscal year, a million pounds is significant, but it's not 21 million pounds," said BRAFB President Larry Zippin.
Aside from dwindling donations, another problem is manufacturers are getting savvier and making fewer mistakes.
"The upside down labels or the misspellings, we used to get those and now the manufacturers have discovered secondary markets, dollar stores," said Zippin.
He continued, "For which they sell those errors 30 cents on the dollar and we don't get that either."
Fifty percent of the food bank's donations come from manufacturers and a government supply from the United States Department of Agriculture, which has also decreased. Zippin remains optimistic that the holiday season will give the food bank the boost it needs.
"Traditionally, as the holidays approach, Thanksgiving and Christmas, food donations and financial donations increase, so we're hoping that stays the pattern this year also," said Zippin.
