The head of the River Bend Foodbank, located in Davenport, said the community the organization serves is seeing record-high food insecurity due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mike Miller, the foodbank's president and CEO, joined the QC COVID-19 Coalition for their briefing on Tuesday, September 8. He said before the pandemic, the highest level of food insecurity the country seen was back in 2009 during the recession.
"Had COVID not happened, we were just ready to announce this year that we had finally gotten food insecurity reduced below the pre-recession levels of 2008."
The foodbank distributed 2 million meals for the first time in June and went up to 2.3 million in July.
September is Hunger Action Month and Thursday, Sept. 10 is Hunger Action Day, which puts a spotlight on talking about hunger and pledging to donate or fundraise to help combat food insecurity.
In Rock Island County:
- There have been a total of 2,556 positive cases in the county
- There have been 71 total deaths in the county
- In the last couple of days, the East Moline correctional facility has reported dozens of cases
In Scott County:
- There have been a total of 2,390 positive cases in the county
- There have been 23 total deaths in the county