WHO IS HUNGRY

River Bend Foodbank is the largest hunger relief organization in eastern Iowa and western Illinois, having distributed over 17 million meals in FY2018/19 to hungry people. Our mission is leading the community-wide effort to end hunger in Iowa and Illinois. We do this through food distribution in partnership with our network of hunger-relief agency partners and programs.

In our service area:

• 114,480 people are food insecure—they don’t know where their next meal is coming from.
• 19,535,900 meals are being missed, not by choice.
• 1 in 9 adults are missing meals, not by choice.
• 1 in 6 children (38,360) are missing meals, not by choice.
• 63% of these people are choosing between medical care and food.
• 62% of these people are choosing between housing and food.
• 81% of these people choose the cheapest food available regardless of its nutritional value.
• 40% of these people water down their food to stretch their food supply.