LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The economic downturn sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic has placed more Kentucky families in need of food assistance. Beginning Monday, an international aid organization has partnered with a local food bank to help fight hunger. 

Dare to Care in Louisville has now joined forces with an Atlanta-based organization simply named Care.

“All around the country, we’ve seen a tremendous increase in demand and need for food access. And that certainly holds true for Louisville,” Ryan Shepard of Care Global Innovation Hub told Spectrum News 1.

Shepard's goal is to help Dare to Care deliver an additional 200,000 meals in the coming months to families in the greater Louisville area. 

“And the way that we do that is by covering the costs of jobs that fill supply chain gaps,” Shepard explained. 

This includes funding additional workers to box and deliver meals and contracting with shared ride services like Uber to do the delivery.

On Monday, volunteers like Larry Grossman were boxing up food donations. Grossman volunteers every month. 

“I would say I have seen an increase in the time of COVID where there are a lot more hungry people out there, so we get more people to show up. A lot of people asking when’s the next one, where’s the next one,” he said.