Following Hurricane Ida, parts of Baton Rouge and the surrounding parishes were left without power and without the ability to go to the grocery store. Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank is stepping in to help.
“People who have not needed us in the past need us now,” says Mike Manning, president and CEO of Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank. “On a daily basis, we help people who have food insecurity, but now, there’s so many more people with food insecurity. We have to expand our efforts, and we’re doing as much as we can.”
The food bank’s volunteers have been distributing food to surrounding parishes, including Assumption, St. James, Ascension, Livingston, St. Helena and East Feliciana.
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The food bank is going through any agencies that might be closed in order to distribute the food, like churches, Manning says. The parish government is helping by telling them what areas need their services.
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“It’s a multi-team effort,” Manning says. Now, the food bank could use volunteers to help with packing disaster boxes and staffing distribution centers.
Sign up to donate money, donate time, set up a food drive or donate food on Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank’s website. The Baton Rouge Area Foundation has also set up a hurricane recovery fund. Donations can be made here.
This article originally appeared in a Sept. 3 edition of Daily Report. For continuing coverage of Hurricane Ida’s impacts, subscribe to the free Daily Report e-newsletter here.