The organization is now called the Islamic Food Bank Foundation and will focus on addressing hunger and expanding its impact.
TOLEDO, Ohio — As the cost of grocery prices rise, more people are turning to food assistance programs such as the Islamic Food Bank.
“Pre-pandemic, we were serving 2,000 families every single year,” Lauren Bacans-Grounds, Islamic Food Bank program manager said. “Now we’re serving 2,000 families every single month.”
The much greater demand for food assistance now has the Islamic Food Bank repurposing its strategy to becoming a single foundation, branching out from The Foundation of the Islamic Center.
“The Foundation of the Islamic Center had a number of responsibilities between scholarships and foundation and the food bank,” program chairman Jameel Burkett said.
He said by making the food bank its own foundation, they’ll be able to better combat the significantly growing demand for food assistance and give it more attention.
“With prices and inflation, I mean I think there’s just this continued growth,” Burkett said. “So we want to continue to be able to serve the community at large no matter what institution it is, no matter what race, no matter what religion, we want to be able to serve the community at large here in our greater Toledo market.”
With the help of volunteers, Bacans-Grounds said the organization wants to expand and create new programming to reach more people.
“Volunteers said, ‘Hey, I know somebody who needs help. Hey, there’s a gap in the food security system here in Toledo.’ We created that programming with the pandemic, our programming just bloomed,” Bacans-Grounds said. “We didn’t have any employees until July of 2023 and we’ve been around since 2008.”
Other assistance programs are also noticing a crucial need for help with food right now within the area.
“There is so much need and just not enough resources to go around,” Erin Tupper with the United Way of Greater Toledo said. “So we’re trying to help people in any way that we can.”
Tupper said people can call or text 2-1-1 and they can assist with things such as reducing grocery bills to helping you find the right resources.
The Islamic Food Bank Foundation said it’s in need of resources such as volunteers and donations which includes food.
For those interested in learning more about the foundation and getting involved, visit their website.
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