- Utah's Community Action Services and Food Bank faces critically low food supplies.
- Demand surged, with 385 households served in one day, straining resources.
- The food bank urges community donations during the annual Feed Utah Food Drive.
PROVO — An unfortunate mix of a drop in food donations and an increase in demand has left the Community Action Services and Food Bank sitting at "critically low levels," the organization said Friday.
Tom Hogan, chief executive officer at Community Action Services and Food Bank, said they typically fare pretty well with donations during the holiday season, but those contributions often dip after the start of the new year.
"January hits, and a lot of people feel that post-holiday crunch — and so everything that we've had donated has pretty well been depleted in those first couple months of the year," he told KSL.
The food bank says it's seeing an "unprecedented surge" in need across its sites in Utah, Wasatch, and Summit counties.
At the organization's Provo food pantry, people seeking assistance start to line up more than an hour before the facility opens, stretching the full length of the building by the time they start letting people in at 9 a.m., Community Action Services and Food Bank stated in a press release.
Last Wednesday, the food pantry served 385 households in one day — its highest number to date, the organization said.
The food bank added that the strain is taking a toll on its resources; since January, the organization said it has had to draw 94,639 pounds of food from emergency reserves to keep up with demand.
Essentially, in January and February, the organization served tens of thousands of pounds more food than what was donated during that time.
"Without immediate community support, the food bank risks being unable to meet the needs of local families," the organization said in a statement.
Additionally, the food bank is seeing more new faces coming to the food pantry.
Roughly 120 new households are seeking assistance, many of which have never needed help before, according to the food bank.
"Inflation is still a real test for people. We're seeing new people who have either lost one or more jobs in their household. And so it's actually getting a little rougher for some of our families," Hogan said.
The food bank served more than 22,600 different households in 2025 across its pantries, it said in the press release.
To help combat the shortfall, the food bank is pleading with community members to donate what they can during the annual Feed Utah Food Drive.
In the past two years, the event has helped raise approximately 100,000 pounds of food; it's hoping to at least match that this year.
"We're encouraging families to think about a pound of food per person in their house. So that equals one meal," Hogan explained.
From Saturday, March 7, through March 14, people can drop off donations at the following locations:
- Community Action Services and Food Bank, 815 S. Freedom Blvd., Provo
- Bella's in Vineyard
- Fresh Market in Provo
- Macey's in Provo
- Macey's in Orem
- Lee's Marketplace in Heber City
Other ways to assist can also be found here.
The food bank stressed the urgency for the community's support to help maintain the food bank's capacity to help those in need.
"It's just an amazing community we live in, so I'm just going to encourage people to think about, 'Hey, how can I be of service?' And right now, we're just saying a grocery bag of food will go a long way," Hogan said.
