Come February, needy Casper families with children will be able to collect one quart of milk per child each month from their local foodbank. Joshua’s Storehouse CEO Jay Martin says the group fed over six-thousand youngsters last year, and the new monthly addition of milk will mean important nutrition for these children.
“We have been looking over the last year at things that are really missing in the food bank business for us,” says Martin, “and one of the things we come up absolutely the shortest on is milk.”
The National Center for Children in Poverty reports that one in five U.S. families are food insecure, meaning they skip or disrupt normal meals for lack of money.
“Right now we’ve got about fifteen in our waiting room,” says Martin, “and those people come to the door and they need food. Some of them are under-employed and those people we see, oh, maybe once a month. And some of them are not employed—with families .”
Martin saysfunds are needed to sustain the project, which will cost around $19,000 this year.