ALBANY — Thanksgiving is still a few days off, but the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York has been preparing and delivering food at holiday volumes for nearly one month.
“We’ve had to activate Thanksgiving every week for the last three weeks,” food bank CEO Tom Nardacci said of his group’s efforts to feed a hungry public battered by rising food costs and delays in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments caused by the federal government shutdown. “That level of service and logistics, it’s been so much.”
People who had never used food banks before became reliant on their services during the 43-day shutdown. Among them were Transportation Security Administration workers and federal court employees. Naradacci helped organize food distributions at airports and the United States Military Academy…