Md. food bank in need of donations

The Food Bank’s 87,000-square-foot warehouse — the only one of its kind in the state — looks almost empty after more than 700,000 pounds of food move in the first two weeks of July.

Chief Executive Officer Deborah Flateman said her company provides food to over 1,000 agencies to feed the hungry across Maryland. Many of these agencies are seeing a huge increase in demand as rising gas and food prices continue to hit wallets hard.

“People have said to their directors, ‘You know, last year I wrote a check here to help with your costs and now here I am looking for food,’ ” Flateman said.

The problem is compounded by a lack in donations from major supermarkets. Companies that normally provide “salvage packages” to the Food Bank are selling their unused products to secondary markets in order to combat their own struggles in the down economy.

The Food Bank is trying to encourage donations by making it possible to send money or food over the Internet. Earlier this week, it started the Virtual Food Drive, which allows Web visitors to purchase wholesale cases of the most needed items. Visit mdfoodbank.org to make a donation.

For more on the Maryland Food Bank, visit baltimoreexaminer.com