DAVENPORT, Iowa — It's usually that time of the year for the Annual Turkey Bowling fundraiser for the River Bend Foodbank.
Since 2015, people would come to our set up location and for $5 get the chance to bowl a frozen turkey. The money raised would go to the River Bend Foodbank to help feed families in the Quad City area. Because of the coronavirus pandemic this year, that fundraiser's not happening.
But President and CEO of the River Bend Foodbank Mike Miller says the need has not slowed down.
He says they were serving nearly 160 thousand people at their peak this spring during the pandemic. That was about 13-thousand more people they were serving.
Miller says many people were experiencing food insecurity for the first time after being furloughed or let go because of COVID-19. There's also been less food to go around. The Foodbank has gotten their orders for food only half-filled.
Miller says their next concern is this holiday season will feel so different, people who normally give won't.
"We don't know what's gonna happen," he says. "Thanksgiving has been like canceled. We're hopeful that happens... That big kind of rush if you will we get around the holidays really carries us into the months... beginning of the year. So we're hopeful people still remember people in need."
Miller says he's also worried because there are two government programs ending at the end of the year, which supply 15 percent of their food.
"One was a trade mitigation program when we had the trade issues with China," he says. "The USDA bought a bunch of food and gave them out through food banks. And there's this 'farmers to families' food box. And both of those programs are slated to end Dec. 31."
Miller says they're trying to ask Congress to continue those programs or slowly phase them out.
Things are looking somewhat brighter. Miller says they're almost back down to serving about the same number of people as they were before COVID.