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Wednesday, October 9, 2024

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Hurricane Milton's outer bands reach Florida as millions of residents race to prepare or flee the path; ME 'living shorelines' counter rising sea levels and stronger storms; NC moms speak out on medical neglect in high-risk pregnancies; TN grant program funds early health care career pathways.

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President Biden cancels international travel as Florida braces for Hurricane Milton, Arizona's early voting brings a focus on Native votes, SCOTUS considers ghost guns, and Nevada gets ready to decide on a voter ID measure.

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Hurricane Helene has some rural North Carolina towns worried larger communities might get more attention, there's mixed feelings about ranked choice voting on the Oregon ballot next month and New York farmers earn money feeding school kids.

GA Food Banks Prep for Increased Need One Year After Pandemic SNAP Ends

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Tuesday, May 9, 2023   

Georgia's food banks are taking action to address the growing demand for their services ahead of summer break.

Frank Sheppard, Feeding the Valley Food Bank's President and CEO, said many families throughout their 18-county service area have yet to recover from financial hardships caused by the pandemic and inflation. He added families are still in need of assistance one year after the pandemic food benefits have ended. As schools close for the summer, the food bank is proactively preparing to support families.

"We projected on average that 2,000 meals a day in the school year will become about 12,000 meals a day during summer," he explained. "So there are a lot of kids that we are going to see two and three times a day. So, it's a lot more kids from about 2,000 to 5,000."

Sheppard added Feeding the Valley Food Bank will increase the number of locations it serves to approximately 43 sites and expand its current Kids Café program to provide multiple meals to children for ten weeks.

Increased need means that many food banks need additional labor, and it is an area that has also failed to rebound since the pandemic, he said.

"Some groups are still reluctant to volunteer at the level they were pre-pandemic. We definitely continue to need volunteers," Sheppard said. "We're not back to the level we were pre-pandemic and continue to need more volunteer assistance."

The Feeding America network reports that approximately 1 in 8 Georgian children faces food insecurity. Nearly 50% of households receiving SNAP benefits have children.


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Hurricane Milton grew to become a major hurricane on the morning of Oct. 7, 2024. (AWS S3 Explorer/Wikimedia Commons)

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