2020 was an especially hard year for local nonprofits.
As we enter the 2021 holiday season, local groups say meeting the need has been a bit easier this year but there’s still an elevated demand in the community.
Heart, Love and Soul is another meal provider focused on feeding Niagara’s hungry.
“Demand has been interesting over the course of the pandemic, we saw it spike for a month or two right around March 2020, but then it began to tail off. It has gone up and it has gone down,”Mark Baetzhold, the group’s executive director said. “It’s hard to predict.”
Prior to the pandemic, the group was serving about 125-150 meals per day. He said that demand leveled to about 100-125 daily meals, and has been slowly increasing toward the upper end of that range.
Baetzhold pointed to increased SNAP benefits and direct federal payments, as well as people being fearful of catching the virus, as reasons why some had been staying away.
Author: Tom Lizardo
Source: Niagara Gazette
