Casper Mayor Declares September Hunger Action Month

At the Casper City Council meeting on Tuesday, Mayor Steve Freel read a proclamation declaring September hunger action month.

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There with Freel was Kody Allen, executive director of Joshua's Storehouse, an organization that provides free food to people in Casper.

In the proclamation, Freel described the amount of hunger that people in Natrona County experience, with 15.3% of people dealing with hunger poverty and a quarter of children dealing with food insecurity.

Freel also stated that the Food Bank of Wyoming provide over 12 million meals annually.

The Food Bank of Wyoming is part of the Feeding American organization, which in 2020 provided 5.2 billion meals to people across the country.

While Allen was there representing Joshua's Storehouse, Salvation Army Casper Corps Major Trish Simeroth and executive director of the Wyoming Food Bank of the Rockies Tony Woodell were also welcomed by Freel, however only Allen was present at the council meeting.

Before the proclamation, Allen gave a short speech, which he said Woodell was supposed to do, encouraging people to help out at food banks.

"We would just like to invite everyone to come and volunteer at all the wonderful food pantries here in town to help us end hunger here in Natrona County."

At the end of the meeting, council member Bruce Knell said that while September is hunger action month, it is also suicide awareness month, which he said is especially important considering a possible resurgence in COVID-19 cases.