First-Time Food Bank Visitors Increase

The number of people seeking emergency food assistance in Louisville is going up.  Metro United Way reports the number of people visiting food banks has risen by thirty-percent, and the number of people seeking that kind of assistance for the first time has gone up forty-percent.Metro United Way President Joe Tolan says they’re recruiting volunteers to expand food banks’ hours, and provide more mobile pantries.“So they can add some more time to their pantry operations, screen more families, in effect, set more up people up to receive emergency food," he says.Tolan says area businesses are stepping up with ten-to-twelve member teams that will staff mobile pantries.  He hopes to have ten such pantries set up in the coming year.