Albany-based human services organization Equinox says it is shifting focus from its Annual Thanksgiving Dinner to year-round food security efforts. As part of the transition, Equinox is partnering with the Regional Food Bank, which will launch a Thanksgiving distribution this year. The Food Bank, working at partner sites across the Capital Region, will host drive-through distributions for food boxes and prepared meals.
With preparations for the busy Thanksgiving season underway, WAMC's Lucas Willard spoke with Michael-Aaron Poindexter, Chief Program Officer at the Regional Food Bank:
We're super grateful for Equinox and everything that they've done for our community, helping all of our neighbors for the last 54 years. You know, the partnership is to make sure that neighbors in our community continue to have what they need around Thanksgiving time, and so the work that they've done for 54 years is appreciated, and we stand on their great shoulders. And you know, we're picking up the mantle and going forward to make sure that we can have the necessary items for our neighbors in the Capital District.
How many meals do you anticipate to actually be distributed this Thanksgiving in the partnership with Equinox?
We're still working to exactly figure out how many meals we need to provide, right? We know that at some point, 10,000 meals were provided via Equinox, and so we want to make sure that the number that we have is a number that meets the need of our community. And so, we don't make those decisions in silo, right? So of course, we're working not just with Equinox, but other community partners who can kind of inform us based on the information they know about the communities they serve and the neighbors in need that they serve every single day, and then based on what we know as being the Food Bank and providing food for our neighbors in need throughout 23 counties, and of course, here focusing on the Capital District, exactly what that number is, but we do know that our goal is to feed as many people as possible and make sure that they have the food that they need around Thanksgiving time.
What are the trends that the Regional Food Bank might have seen over the last few years with regard to food insecurity? Is this something that is a growing trend, especially as food prices have risen over the last few years?
For sure. I mean, every data point doesn't suggest, but explicitly tells us that there are more neighbors in need in our community, from not just two years ago, but this year in itself. And you know, with that, you can walk into the grocery store and see how that number arrived at the place where it is. Milk is up. Eggs are up. The everyday items that a family would go into to buy are up. And so, with that, people have to make decisions. Do I, does the senior buy medicine, or do they buy food? Does the mom or dad provide everything that the family needs? Or do they try to stretch as much as they can? And so, we've seen it. Our partner network has told us that their pantry lines have increased by 34 to 40%. They're seeing more people in their pantries than they've ever seen before. To date, we've provided more pounds of food than we did all of last year and so on. And every metric you see that the need is the need is growing. And so, what we what we wanted to ensure, is that specifically around the Thanksgiving time that we were doing everything humanly possible that we could to help alleviate hunger in our in our communities, and making sure that our neighbors had everything that they needed.
Now, how about volunteer opportunities? If people want to get involved, or maybe they do have experience volunteering around Thanksgiving with distribution, how can they get involved?
Sure. So, this is a huge undertaking, right? And we are super excited to be in this space to continue the work that Equinox has done. But as Equinox has shown us over the years, it takes a whole community to come together to make this happen. And so, we know that this is a huge undertaking on top of what we already do, right? We already have to make sure that we're providing the food to our 23 counties. So this, this is an addition. So again, we're still in in the in the planning phases, but it'll be expansive, and it'll involve multiple counties, and it'll be a mix of drive through food pantries and prepared meals, but we're looking for at least 1,000 volunteers who will help us, you know, with the distribution, providing the delivery service, if that's a model that we can adopt, and then we need funders, right with the need for big partnership, not just from the volunteer standpoint, to make sure we can move the food and get it to the people who need it the most. We need people who will be able to fund us and fund this work so that our neighbors can receive the food that they need.
Right now, we're speaking in September, is it not too early to start thinking about Thanksgiving?
Oh, it's never too early. In fact, we were thinking about Thanksgiving before the transition from Equinox to us, we were thinking about Thanksgiving in the summertime, right? You know it takes a lot to ensure that we have all the necessary food in time for Thanksgiving. And if you can look out, you can see the leaves turning. Our leaves have been turned into fall mindset back in the summertime, so that we made sure we had the food and we made sure that we had the programming in place to provide what our neighbors needed. And so, it's never too early. It is never too early to move forward in this work. But again, I just stress that this is in addition to what we've already done, right? And so, you know, it will take those volunteers. It's going to take the funders who can help contribute to this work that we have to do in order for us to pull this off. And we are confident that the volunteers exist. We're confident that funders will step up and help, and we're confident that everyone who needs a meal at Thanksgiving is going to have what they need. We are just getting to work on that process now to make sure that we can execute it to the best of our ability.
And for anybody who wants to find out more information on how they can volunteer, or for potential partnership or sponsorship opportunities, where can they go?
They can go right to our website, RegionalFoodBank.net, and click on the homepage. The announcement is right on that front screen. And you can click More info, and it'll take you into all of the information. That page will continually be updated. And you can go right on that page to contribute, to sign up to volunteer. You can go on that page to provide. And let me just say there is no dollar amount that's too small or too large. It is going to take all of us collectively contributing. But you can go right to our page, Regionalfoodbank.net, to contribute to the work.
