COVID-19 Global Food Bank Response

Food banks continue to operate in the face of unprecedented demand

From mid-March through the end of October 2020, food banks in The Global FoodBanking Network served 27.6 million people, up from 16.9 million during all of 2019. Close to 11 million new people have sought support from their local food bank during the pandemic, an average of 200,000 additional people per food banking organization. As of October 2020, 53 percent of food banks/national networks reported that they were still seeing a 51 percent or more increase in demand for emergency food assistance. Thirty-five percent reported that increase in demand is more than 91 percent.

We hope you will view the attachment "COVID-19 Impact report for donors" to learn more about how the pandemic is affecting individual food banks in the GFN network such as Zomato Feeding India.

India has been deeply affected by the pandemic, with over ten million reported cases of COVID-19 and an economy that has contracted by 23.9 percent. While the government’s recent mask campaign significantly curbed the September spike of 100,000 cases per day, the ongoing effects of COVID-19 have been devastating, especially for the country’s 400 million daily wage workers whose incomes have disappeared completely. Zomato Feeding India, one of GFN’s four regional food bank partners in India, operates through an extensive network of 104 food banks and 1,095 beneficiary organizations. The organization relies on over 26,000 volunteers to help solve hunger across more than 100 cities nationwide.

This crisis is not yet over, and many communities continue to suffer due to lack of resources. We are endlessly grateful for your ability to support global hunger relief at this critical time! Thank you for your support! 

Links:

• GFN Video: COVID-19 Impact on Food Banks

• COVID-19 Impact Report for donors (PDF)