SALT LAKE CITY — Utahns can help fight food insecurity by doing something as simple as leaving cans of food or boxes of cereal outside the front door.
"We live in such a generous state. I think there's a lot of people around who want to be helpful," said Lee's Marketplace CEO Jonathan Badger, as he joined Gov. Spencer Cox on Wednesday to promote Utah's largest donation drive of the year.
The governor himself made a ceremonial donation to kick start the Feed Utah event at the Utah Food Bank warehouse. On Saturday, everyone across the state is asked to participate by leaving non-perishable food on their doorsteps by 9 a.m.
Community volunteers will make sure every item donated goes to the food bank as the need for its services continues to rise. Last year, enough food was collected to provide more than 2 million meals.
"We are a supplier to 270 partner agencies across the state," explained Kent Liston with the food bank. "We are monitoring and doing surveys with them and they are saying, unequivocally, that the demand is going up."
The donation blitz will be held as federal funding for food assistance programs is being slashed.
"[Federal cuts are] something we are watching closely," Cox said. "We just won the award as the least dependent state on the federal government, which is good for us. I am always concerned about federal funding and federal spending, and trying to make sure we are self sufficient here in Utah. That's why events like this matter so much.
"We will watch it closely and any impacts we will be sharing with the legislature and doing what we can to make up for those impacts at home."
Last week, the Utah State Legislature took a step to address childhood food insecurity by passing a bill, which will soon be on the governor's desk, that expands the free school meal program to include about 40,000 more students.
"I do plan to sign it. We supported it, I advocated for it. It matters," Cox said. "We had some federal funding that was left over last year that I applied to school lunches because I believe in it."
It’s unclear how deep any potential federal cuts will be felt in the state or specifically at the food bank. But those cuts are top of mind for those who work there and a reason why those involved in organizing the food drive believe this year’s event is more important than ever.
"We know the need is going to go up," Liston said. "We are going to be ready to react to it."
Some of the most needed items during the drive include canned vegetables, canned fruits, canned meats, cereals, soups, and macaroni and cheese.
