20% Of Monterey County Residents Can't Afford To Eat Without Financial Assistance

View From A Non-Profit Serving Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California

I just dropped off a bag of food at a food drive and while I was eating my own lunch, I was reading the paper and was saddened to see the story about how food banks in Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties are facing huge shortfalls.  In Monterey County alone, a whopping one in five people get food assistance, about 90,000 people per month.  That's a lot of mouths to feed.  Some of these qualify for CalFresh (formerly known as food stamps) while others get food from a local food pantry or soup kitchen.  According to California Food Policy Advocates, Monterey County is the worst County in the entire state for food insecure households, ranking #58.  Melissa Kendrick, development director at the Food Bank for Monterey County, said the problem is getting worst.  "In the past five years the need for food assistance has increased 50%," she told a reporter.  "In our warehouse, unfortunately, many of our shelves are bare because the need has increased and commodity prices, at the same time, have increased."  Please help your local food drives if you can afford to, no one should go hungry during the holidays.  I think many people believe we live in a very affluent county and would be shocked that it's the worst county in the state gauged by the number of people going hungry.

http://www.h2hs.org/news-and-media.html

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands To Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.