Earlier this month, the SLO Food Bank told KSBY News that food insecurity in San Luis Obispo County rose by 16 percent over the past year.
We spoke with SLO Food Bank officials about why there’s a bigger need this year and how their new food pantry is helping community members stock up on food.
“Since Covid, when we started seeing more people come out to our warehouse," said Molly Kern, the SLO Food Bank CEO. "We've been doing our best to make sure that no matter what, everyone's getting nutritious food.”
According to Kern, people used to pick up prepackaged food items, such as fresh produce and shelf-stable goods, at their front desk.
But their newest distribution center, which opened in April, now allows their visitors to choose exactly what fits their needs.
“In the pantry, you have an option of choosing shelf-stable items, frozen meat or fish, and filling up an entire bag of whatever produce is a fit for you,” said Kern. “I think great examples are people with children. Someone might like apples and oranges. You can make that choice and get exactly what you want instead of a mix of everything.”
Kern added that the food bank continues to see an increase in the number of people they serve in the county.
“We saw a spike of people that we were serving during Covid, but we were really heartened to see that in 2022, that number had gotten back to pretty much what was normal for our community pre-Covid, which was about 31,000 people that we were serving each month,” said Kern. “Since 2022, that number has grown by more than 50%, so that we are now serving more than 46,000 people a month, and the year is not done. And we continue to see increases month over month over month.”
Savannah Colevans, the senior manager for communications at the SLO Food Bank, told KSBY News that the opening of the new pantry has been uplifting.
“The first week that we were here," said Colevans. "We had people come who had been here time and time again, and they saw the new space and it's totally lit up."
Kern mentioned that findfoodslo.org is another resource to use to find other food distribution centers in the area.
