EAST LIVERPOOL — With the current economic situation coupled with many residents losing their SNAP benefits during the recent government shutdown, many food banks experienced a surge in the amount of people seeking help with food.

FISH, a local foodbank which has been assisting East Liverpool residents for nearly 40 years, has seen a significant increase in residents seeking assistance. The number of people they served nearly doubled.

“It’s been overwhelming when they cut off the SNAP program. We are doing at least 100 families a week,” Tom McKinney, FISH, said. “Where we were seeing about 15 people on a distribution day, went to nearly 30 during the last few weeks.”

During the month of November, FISH saw an increase in the amount of people served. Typically, they see about 900 people during that time, but last month the numbers increased to 1,400.

McKinney attributes that increase to the loss of SNAP Benefits.

McKinney said it’s hard to predict right now how this increase will impact the organization’s ability to provide help for Christmas, with SNAP benefits resuming for many and people being allowed to use the food pantry once a month.

He also noted that three food bank volunteers have recently passed and instead of buying flowers with the donated money, the organization purchased about 70 turkeys to distribute Thanksgiving in their honor.

“It was a nice thing, we were about to the money for a purpose,” McKinney said.

The organization still has about 15 turkeys left; due to the short time they had to purchase them and hand them out. The remaining Turkeys will be handed out for Christmas. So that is some help for Christmas.

The FISH just received a $595 donation from East Liverpool High School Public Service students which will help the organization.

McKinney said that Second Harvest, the organization FISH works with to obtain food and provide assistance, reports that every dollar received can provide up to five meals.

McKinney noted that every dollar helps.

He noted that every donation, whether monetary or non-perishable food item, he is grateful for and makes a difference for someone. The organization is actually able to feed more with a $1 donation than the donation of one canned good.

McKinney said the food bank is fortunate that donations are up right now, and with the donations they have now, they should be good through the middle of December.

The food bank receives donations from Walmart and Aldi’s on Wednesday and Saturdays. McKinney said these businesses have been extremely good to them and without them they would have to spend a lot more money to meet the needs of the community.

Anyone interested in donating to FISH can mail a check made out to FISH Incorporated to P.O. Box 5181, East Liverpool, OH, 43920.

Monetary (cash or check), non-perishable food or hygiene product donations can be made in person Monday through Friday between 10 a.m. and noon at 213 W. Fourth St. in East Liverpool.

“FISH is a volunteer run program with an aging volunteer group,” McKinney said. The organization is trying to recruit more volunteers and would love to see younger volunteers come in.

Anyone interested in volunteering can call FISH Monday through Friday between 10 a.m. and noon to schedule a time to come in and meet with the organizers. Most volunteers come in a couple days a month.

McKinney thanked all the volunteers because every volunteer makes a difference.