Posted on 11/22/2007 7:27:08 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
Operators of free food banks say they are seeing more working people needing assistance. The increased demand is outstripping supplies and forcing many pantries and food banks to cut portions.
Demand is being driven up by rising costs of food, housing, utilities, health care and gasoline, while food manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers are finding they have less surplus food to donate and government help has decreased, according to Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks.
"I've been doing this for 20 years, and I can't believe how much worse it gets month after month," she said.
Diana Blasingame has lately found herself having to go to a free food pantry once a month to feed herself and her teenage daughter.
"I'm pretty good at making things stretch as far as I can, but food is so high now and I have to have gas in my car to do my job," said Blasingame, 46, who earns $9 an hour as a home health aide. "I work full time, but I don't have health insurance and sometimes there just isn't enough to pay bills and buy food."
"We have food banks in virtually every city in the country, and what we are hearing is that they are all facing severe shortages with demand so high," Ross Fraser, a spokesman for America's Second Harvest — The Nation's Food Bank Network, the nation's largest hunger relief group, said Friday. "One of our food banks in Florida said demand is up 35 percent over this time last year."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's annual hunger survey released Wednesday showed that more than 35.5 million people in the United States were hungry in 2006. While that number was about the same as the previous year, heads of food banks and pantries say many more people are seeking their assistance.
Tony Hall, vice president of the Food Bank of Southwest Georgia, estimates a 10 percent to 20 percent increase in demand for food in the 20-county area the organization serves. He cites cutbacks by local companies, rising fuel costs and the lingering impact of a March tornado that tore through Americus, Ga., destroying or damaging hundreds of homes.
"We really didn't rebound from that," Hall said Friday. "We're definitely down in donations. Each year the demand gets bigger and bigger."
Supplies are down to a little over 8 million pounds of food from a peak of about 12 million pounds two years ago at Hocking-Athens-Perry Community Action, which provides food bank services in 10 counties in southeast Ohio.
"We've lost factory jobs and many service jobs don't pay a livable wage," said Dick Stevens, director of the organization's food and nutrition division. "We see a lot of desperation in families who are trying to figure out how to pay higher fuel and utility costs and still put food on the table."
Most food banks and pantries aren't optimistic about the coming winter.
"November weather has been relatively mild, and you haven't seen the cost of home heating fuel added to what a family has to deal with," said Evelyn Behm, associate director of the Mid-Ohio Food Bank, which supplies food to pantries, soup kitchens and other charities in 20 central and eastern Ohio counties. "Those prices, we all know, are going up substantially this year."
At the Society of St. Vincent de Paul food pantry in Cincinnati, clients now get three or four days' worth of food instead of six or seven.
"We are trying to stretch our resources to help more people," said Liz Carter, executive director of the society. "But it's so difficult when you see the desperation and have to tell them you just don't have enough to give them what they need."
Officials with the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York, which serves nearly 1,000 agencies in 23 counties, also are worried.
Through the end of August, the food bank was down almost 700,000 pounds of USDA commodities that include basic essentials such as canned fruit and vegetables and some meat — food that is very difficulty to make up in donations, Executive Director Mark Quandt said.
"We're bracing ourselves for a very tough winter, especially with home heating fuel prices at record highs in the Northeast," Quandt said. "People living in poverty or near poverty just can't sustain those types of increases."
Cool!!!!!
When you hand the mailman a free case of beer, I don’t think he looks for the “born on” date...
Beer snob. ;)
LoL! you and the rest of the country!
Aint that Turkey done yet? ;0)
I’m with you EBH.
The eggs are higher because the corn used for chickenfeed is being used for ethanol, and it cost more to ship the produce and refrigerate the produce because of fuel costs.
I see prices higher 50c here and 50c there everywhere.
It adds up fast.
I agree with all of that, but there is also an additional reason - crop failures this year, either because of drought or flooding. I think the corn crop failure was something like 50% this year in my county alone.......and i have some farmer friends that lost entire crops and others who were only able to salvage 25% and none of that was for ethanol, some was for produce much most was feed corn.
Oh BTW, one thing that isnt going up is wages.
Employers are paying more in operation costs and they are tightening belts.
The other day I was reprimanded at work for leaving the lights on.
I haven’t heard this kind of talk since carter was in office! L0L
I was unaware of that. We finally broke our 3 year drought this year.
Do you remember how college kids used to have those silly scavenger hunts, going door to door collecting oddball items off a list?
Well,.. dressed like geek college kids you go with the same silly lists but mostly things few would have except for some easy to find food and useful items.
Always mixed in the list were..a pork chop, a potato, an egg, quart of milk, a D cell battery ( useful for the flashlights), etc.
Hit several dozen nice houses and you had supplies to eat like a king for a weekend of fishing at the lake.
Our local parish does food baskets for needy families in addition to supporting the St.VdP Society. Both are in serious need of food, and the local homeless shelter is running low on food and clothing. While there are many who scam, I think it important to remember that there are people who are truly needy and who live on the margins of society for whatever reason. Christ let us know that we were feeding Him when we fed the hungry. He didn't cite any difference between those who are truly needy and those who mooch. I trust His judgment in those matters because in essence the mooches are stealing from the truly needy. I'd hate to be on of those mooches on Judgment Day.
Another factor I read about in an article elsewhere is that FedGov is buying less food to prop up the farmers due to increased demand in the market. The gov donates this food (per the other article) - and this is a big factor for some food banks - they are receiving less from what may be one of the biggest “donors”.
Y'all got all our rain!! LOL - no offense meant.
This is a farming county, and one of the biggest crops is chickens so I've heard about the price of feed from many farmers.
Between the cost of gas, food and heating, which has been minimal this year, my monthly expenses are up around $300. We live very frugally, and have only 2 cars for 7 people. Food seems to go up each week, at least lately. Haven’t gotten raises in over 2 years, and I am now getting squeezed on overtime. Christmas is looking lean this year, unless we tap into savings.
I should add that my wife and I both work, and we have a decent income. Nothing as sad as $9.00/hour. I honestly don’t know how someone survives on that. I know there are some welfare queens that take advantage of public assistance and live well. There are also a lot of hardworking people that are losing ground every month. There really are people in the country that are poor and hungry. Hopefully, donations will go up once the public finds this out.
No offense taken.
So thats why I saw an $8 chicken in the store last month!
I got a raise last year. It was the worst I have ever recieved and it was a joke. It didnt cover COLA.
There are lots of hard working folks that are losing ground.
Folks, who would normally be donating to less fortunate folks.
Exactly.
I look out the window behind where I am sitting right now and I see 5 buildings housing 175,000 of those things, and yet they still coast over $1 a pound for whole ones, let alone cut up or just specific parts (boneless breasts over $5 a pound)
Pound for pound seafood is cheaper than chicken.
We will not encourage these people to stay in the U.S.
Act like a sanctuary for criminals -- you get NO aid from us.
Donation lost: $1,000 plus 30 turkeys
I live in Asheville, NC, and our food bank just spent a fortune on the warehouse next door because their current (huge) building isn’t big enough to hold their consistent inventory.
This was a whole chicken, prolly 2.5 lbs.
I spontaneously said out loud...”GTFO”!! 8 dollars for a effin chicken!??
Then I realized what I had blurted out and looked around and those who had heard in embarrassment L0L
Folks, who would normally be donating to less fortunate folks.
You both are correct. I find that we donate more of our time than money anymore.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.