BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) – Three months after the floodwaters receded, the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank has come a long way. However, even with their flooded warehouse cleaned up and back open full recovery is still a long way off.
“We’re not even near where we need to be for the holidays,” said CEO Mike Manning.
Most of the shelves in the newly reopened warehouse remain empty with the holiday season fast approaching. Now more than ever, the food bank needs help and donations.
One family foundation heard that call for help all the way in Connecticut and came through with a $25,000 grant to provide 1,000 Thanksgiving meals for families in Zachary. However, the food bank’s CEO said even one dollar can make a big difference.
“We need food more than anything else. If you want to give us money we can leverage that dollar into the equivalent of four meals,” Manning said.
One of the easiest ways to help out the food bank this holiday season is just to go grocery shopping. At any Associated Grocers affiliate store, you’ll find the red bags prefilled with a holiday meal. They cost $10 and can be dropped off in a bin at the store.
“There’s so much more demand than we’ve faced in the past as a result of the flooding so it’s a larger, more difficult challenge, but our community always rises to it,” Manning said.
More information can be found on the food bank’s website.