Hunger Action Month is an annual nationwide campaign each September to raise awareness. And an update on the challenges in Nevada County was presented to County Supervisors at their meeting on Tuesday. Among the topics discussed by Interfaith Food Ministry Executive Director Phil Alonso was food insecurity. It’s defined as a lack of consistent access that hinders living a healthy life. And he said the number of local residents who have it is significantly higher than the estimate from the U.S. Department of Agriculture…

click to listen to Phil Alonso

Alonso said there were some increases in food distributions in 2020 and 2021, due to the pandemic. But he said inflation and the loss of extra benefits in 2022 and 2023 have caused the largest increases in need that IFM has ever seen. So allowable pickups have been reduced from weekly to one every two weeks. Supervisor Heidi Hall said government policy changes too often end up overwhelming cities and counties…

click to listen to Heidi Hall

In 2022, IFM had record numbers for its distribution programs. That was 210-thousand bags for 92-thousand visits.