WHO IS HUNGRY
River Bend Foodbank is the largest hunger relief organization in eastern Iowa and western Illinois, having distributed over 12.9 million meals in 2017 to hungry people. Our mission is to lead the community-wide effort to end hunger in Iowa and Illinois. We do this through food distribution in partnership with our 300 agencies as well as our Mobile Pantries, Senior Pantries, and Backpack Program.
In our service area:
- Nearly 125,000 people are food insecure—they don’t know where their next meal is coming from.
- 22.3 million meals are being missed, not by choice.
- 1 in 8 adults are missing meals, not by choice.
- 1 in 5 children (43,380) 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.
