By Daniel Essiet
Food banks worldwide served 40 million people last year. This represents a 132 per cent increase in service over 2019.
According to the results of the yearly Global Food Banking Network (GFN) survey, food banks stretched to meet previously inconceivable numbers of people seeking emergency food assistance, many of whom were seeking assistance for the first time.
Food banks served many vulnerable, diverse demographic groups, including approximately, 17.6 million children aged 0-17, 6.8 million adults aged 50+ and 22.6 million women and girls. To meet demand for emergency food assistance, food banks worked through 59,161 beneficiary agency organisations, BAOs, (the building blocks of civil society), including food pantries, congregate meal sites, homeless shelters, orphanages, and afterschool programmes.
Ninety-six percent of food banks in the GFN network purchased food in 2020 compared to 50 per cent in 2018.7. The most purchased item was rice: over 62 per cent of food banks that bought food purchased rice, and for 22 foodbanks, rice was their number one purchase. Other top items purchased included noodles, cooking oil, flour (corn, wheat, and other), beans and legumes, and various dairy products.
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