BEND, OR -- Giving Tuesday is still three weeks away, but one local nonprofit says this year’s need is bigger than ever. Ranae Staley, Executive Director of The Giving Plate, says 2022 has been their busiest since opening 13 years ago, "We are now 60% higher in our monthly average in the number of families and individuals we’re serving, compared to 2021. And, September of this year was our busiest month ever. If we compare that month alone to September of last year, it was an 83% difference."

Staley tells KBND News the end of the pandemic exposed a financial crisis covered by COVID assistance programs, "The band-aids could only stay on for so long, from the government, and then we have to deal with the real wound. The real wound is still there, and it’s actually becoming a little bigger because the impacts are snowballing. We didn’t have the inflation dynamic increases early in COVID, but we’re having that now - cost of food, cost of gas, cost of rents, all going up." She says many clients also say the rising cost of childcare is a factor.

According to Staley, 90% of The Giving Plate's clients are housed and most are employed - some with multiple jobs, "The stories are all so different but the thread of commonality is just how hard it is to live in Central Oregon. The cost of living here is so high; and then with the inflation that we’re experiencing this year - the face of hunger is not what our community realizes."

The Giving Plate offers between $500 and $700 in groceries per family per month. Staley is optimistic about 2023. A donor recently helped the nonprofit food bank pay off its building. Instead of worrying about a mortgage, she says The Giving Plate will be able to help more people.