BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The holidays are around the corner, but several food pantries in Buffalo are in need of stocking up enough food to meet the needs of the community.
Greater Refuge Temple Church which serves the Fruit Belt community in Buffalo is one of many that’s facing a challenge in meeting the supply and demand of food donations.
“We’re in need of turkeys. We’re soliciting turkeys,” says Leonard Marshall, an assistant pastor at Greater Refuge Temple Church. “And we’ve seen an increase of the asylum seekers and migrants as well as our regular community members who are in need of food, and during the holiday season nobody wants to go hungry.”
Pantry coordinator of the church Branden Foster showed 7 News reporter Yoselin Person the dense amount of food inside the pantry.
He says it isn’t enough to necessarily feed the amount of people that come in every week.
“A number of people that we serviced let’s say on an average week this time last year we’re probably looking 150 to 200 people, but it has doubled now,” Foster says.
FeedMore WNY says last year they served 197, 500 people across Western New York.
“When you dig into those numbers on who we serve we especially saw an increase in the number of children who are relying on our food bank distribution networks of agencies,” says Catherine Shick, public relations manager at FeedMore WNY.
Meantime, this organization supplies 400 hunger relief partners including Greater Refuge Temple Church.
“We have a tremendous need in the community, and overall community food donations are down,” Shick says. “So we do encourage people to get involved. You can host your own food drive.”
Members of the Greater Refuge Temple Church on Jefferson Avenue are hopeful to still help refugees along with the entire East Side community.
“They need assistance. They have children. They have a language barrier. Children are hungry. They don’t have the proper clothing,” says Marshall. “And I believe that the Fruitbelt is the community that will pull together and meet the needs of people that’s in the community.”
Greater Refuge Temple Church food pantry hours of operations:
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays from 11 am to 1 pm.
Contact: 716-886-2199
Click here to donate to the organization.
Clickhere to donate to FeedMore WNY.
