There has been an influx of people going to organizations because of food insecurity.
Groups like Grow It Forward are one of those organizations.
CEO Amber Daugs says about 8,000 people around Manitowoc County are suffering from food insecurity, with most of them living around Manitowoc and Two Rivers.
Appointments to get food from their food pantry is getting close to 100% of food appointments being full.
But one group Grow It Forward has seen more of its seniors.
Daugs says in a social media post from AARP that more of them are facing food insecurity, and they’ve seen it locally.
“We saw a 123% increase in the number of seniors we served from 2023 over 2022,” she described.
She credits the advertisement of the organization with why they might be seeing more seniors.
But they also get help from the Hunger Task Force, which coordinates something called the Senior Stock Box.
“Seniors who are over the age of 63 and are of a certain income limit are qualified to receive a food box once a month that has a variety of canned fruits and vegetables, some cheese, there’s some dairy in there as well,” she explained. “And there’s also a wide variety of other proteins.”
She says other groups like the Salvation Army are also dealing with more people showing up because of food insecurity.
