The daily COVID-19 pandemic story is one of numbers and people. The crushing daily toll is told in deaths, hospitalizations, tests, unemployment claims and revenue losses.
This week’s cover story focuses on another side of the story, the state’s response to the food crisis. It too has its own set of striking numbers.
They include the 337,000 pounds of food per week distributed by the Rhode Island Community Food Bank to local agencies, one-third more than before the pandemic.
The food bank was serving about 53,000 people a month through those agencies; now it is close to 70,000.
Normally, the food bank gets help from about 100 volunteers. But the work they normally do has been picked up by a staff of 55, due to health concerns.
The numbers indicate a growing need and increased pressure to meet it. Sometimes you find hope in the numbers too.
In this case, it’s $2.8 million more in donations to the food bank over two months compared with last year. Even as the health crisis abates, the community need for food rages on.
Rhode Islanders’ willingness to meet that challenge is one pandemic number worth celebrating.
