Eastern Illinois Food Bank receives $45,000 grant from United Way

URBANA, Ill. (WAND) — The Eastern Illinois Food Bank is able to assist more families with a $45,000 grant from United Way.

The money comes from United Way's Community Essentials grant, that's meant to help families that are struggling with more than just food insecurity.

“Our community essentials really focus on funding program who provide the services that really meet the basic needs for families in our community such as food, shelter, health care, access to technology,” said Director of Community Impact at United Way, Javaite Burton.

The VP of Development at the food bank explained how the number of families facing food insecurity has increased 40%. These families are more dependent on food banks now due to inflation.

“High grocery prices have been unrelenting, and they’ve had such an impact on local families. I think that this grant really helps us to be able to provide food and those staple items for our partner agencies,” said Amanda Borden, VP of Development at Eastern Illinois Foodbank.

When funds might be stretched too thin for some families, food banks and other food programs are a necessity during this time.

“We do hear from a lot of families right now that they’re so glad to have our help. So many families are just facing such tough choices right now," said Borden. "Certainly, we don’t to think about anybody in our community having to make tough choices like should they pay their bills or should they buy groceries.”