Monroe, La. (KNOE 8 News) - September marks the beginning of Hunger Action Month and the Northeast Louisiana Food Bank is going to be needing a lot of that action from the ArkLaMiss.
For the Northeast Louisiana Food Bank in Monroe, their mission is clear.
Feed the hungry of 12 parishes.
Send their supplies across 6,000 square miles.
"The last time I looked, it's not a crime to be poor and hungry," Food Bank Executive Director, Richard King, said. "We define ourselves as a society by how we treat those people who have so much less than we do."
But their mission just got harder once they learned how many meals they were short this year.
"11 million meals a year in our area," King said. "That's just the number of meals we'd have to make up for everybody to be whole in their diet in Northeast Louisiana."
What will be just as hard is what it will take to fill that hole.
"That's another 8.25 million pounds of food," said King.
The food bank will depend on the people for the help they need, for their food and their costs.
The food bank is $61,000 in the hole this year and just to ship food in trucks can cost $2,000.
"They won't take an I.O.U. They won't take a smile for that," King said. "They want the money."
But the food bank said they have full confidence in the people of the ArkLaMiss.
In 2011, when they were more than $180,000 in the hole, the community stepped up, cutting down that total $156,000 in donations.
If you'd like to donate to the food bank, you can mail money to this address:
The Food Bank of Northeast Louisiana
P.O. Box 5048
Monroe, LA 71211-5048
You can visit them at 4600 Central Avenue, Monroe, LA.
You can also give to them online by following this link: https://www.justgive.org/nonprofits/donate.jsp?ein=72-1333809
