First Friday Memo - June 2025
From the desk of Jayne Wright-Velez, Executive Director
The Food Bank of Central Louisiana
June 2025 / Issue 184AmeriCorps Cuts Impact Central Louisiana Families
The Food Bank’s AmeriCorps program has been terminated without cause and without notice, putting food-insecure families across Cenla at risk. Our AmeriCorps team served since 2021 at household food distributions throughout Central Louisiana, ensuring that our neighbors could put food on their tables every month. AmeriCorps members did the hard work of loading food into neighbors’ vehicles, sorting and packing food in our warehouses, and loading and unloading the trucks for food distributions. They served at the food bank’s home warehouse during daily food distributions in Alexandria; and in the field at 27 monthly mobile pantries across the region. The program helped to shorten the “last mile” for thousands of families. In May, our AmeriCorps team served their final day.
We are stretching to make sure neighbors continue to be served while we seek solutions to fill the void. In the meantime, we ask for patience if service is slower or lines are longer. In these uncertain times, the community needs our support more than ever.
New Map the Meal Gap Study Examines Food Insecurity
Food insecurity affects every county in the United States, according to Feeding America’s annual Map the Meal Gap study. At the local level, the study finds:
Overall food insecurity has increased in every parish served by the Food Bank of Central Louisiana, including Allen, Avoyelles, Catahoula, Concordia, Grant, LaSalle, Natchitoches, Rapides, Sabine, Vernon and Winn.
About one in five people (19.1%) across Cenla live in food-insecure households.
The highest increases in food insecurity were among adults aged 18-60.
Children across the region did slightly better than the previous year. However, the situation remains severe with more than one in four children facing hunger in parts of Cenla.
The Food Bank of Central Louisiana is part of the Feeding America nationwide network of more than 200 food banks, 22 statewide food bank associations and 60,000 agency partners, food pantries and meal programs. Check out the interactive map at https://map.feedingamerica.org.
Call For Volunteers!
The Food Bank of Central Louisiana is in serious need of volunteers to support our programs across the region. You’ll sort and pack food, bag bulk produce, and help with our daily food distributions. The work can be hot and tiring – and also a lot of fun – and you’ll be glad you came. Volunteers can sign up for as little as an hour or for full days; Monday through Friday, 8am-3pm. Volunteer as an individual, family, or group of up to 100 people. Contact Carole at 318-445-2773 or cstafford@fbcenla.org to reserve your spot today.
Morgan Stanley Foundation Funds Child and Family Feeding Programs
The Morgan Stanley Foundation has partnered with Feeding America to provide more than $50 million in support of hunger-relief programs that deliver food assistance and healthy meals to children and families across the country. The Food Bank of Central Louisiana was awarded $32,052 as part of this initiative. The goal of this grant is to support Child and Family Feeding programs serving children and families in communities that face high rates of food insecurity due to low income or systemic barriers.
The Rotary Club of Alexandria Awards a Grant for the BackPack Program
Thank You to the Rotary Club of Alexandria for providing a $2,000 grant in support of the Food Bank’s BackPack Program. This grant will provide much-needed meals and snacks for children to take home over weekends, when school meals are not available. The program starts up in September and runs through the school year.
The Food Bank Has Received a $15,000 Grant from State Farm
State Farm® has partnered with Feeding America to award unrestricted grants to food banks. The State Farm® mission is to help people manage the risks of everyday life, recover from the unexpected and realize their dreams. State Farm recognizes the importance of giving back to the communities it serves. State Farm partners with the Feeding America network because the network is engaged in trying to end hunger and food insecurity through rescuing, sourcing, and distributing food.
Thanks to All who Participated in the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive
Last month, the National Association of Letter Carriers held its annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive all across the nation. Thank you to everyone who left a bag of food out to be collected by your letter carrier on May 10. Locally, the drive provided 19,654 pounds of food donated to the Food Bank of Central Louisiana. We are so grateful for our continued partnership with the Alexandria/Pineville/Marksville 932 National Association of Letter Carriers.
