MOre hungry people depending on food pantries while the food pantries are suffering loss of donation

[greenbriar]

For weeks now, while the national news reported fear and worry among Wall Street financial titans, a working mother of four named Darcy Fox was trying to stretch out her family's Ramen noodles and canned goods until her next trip to a charity food pantry.

"Thank God for food pantries," she said on Monday, holding her infant son.

But all over Wichita, while recent news has been dominated by worries from Wall Street, the leaders of Wichita's food charities have watched with growing fear as the number of people showing up for meals and food has set records.

"We're scared, to be quite honest with you," said Brian Walker, the director of the Kansas Food Bank. "We've never encountered numbers like what we are seeing, and we're having trouble sometimes putting together enough in the boxes to make full meals."

http://www.kansas.com/news/story/560588.html

[OhioChick]

1. This is hitting the poor terribly hard.

There have been many food banks that have shut their doors here.

[Crazy Dave]

3. Same here in my town

No bail outs for them though.

[SpiralHawk]

26. Republicons bail out fatcat banking cronies, not food banks for the hungry

What pisses Americans off is that republicons are using our tax money to bail out their fatcat cronies, while stiffing the hungry and homeless.

Ya gotta wonder, what would Jesus do? I think he'd barf with revulsion at how the republicons have perverted his teachings...

[Crazy Dave]

28. It's not just the shelters suffering but a lot of other non-profit and city run programs

Programs for health and young people in poor areas, etc. Yet our city owns and runs a huge multi-million dollar equestrian center where the mayor and all his rich buddies throughout the state come with their $60k horse trailers and their $100k plus horses. Every year it gets brought up in the budget as wasteful and not a benefit to the public but it's always told that it's off limits when it comes to budget cuts. Take the money from education, the fire and police departments but do not touch the rich bureaucrat's playground or else.

[brentspeak]

2. There's been full-blown recessions in many states

and yet Congress -- with a few notable members as exceptions -- didn't do jack-squat until Wall St. finally started squealing. CNBC and the rest of the mainstream media (with the exception of Lou Dobbs) certainly hasn't given a damn.

[OhioChick]

4. Ohio and Michigan never left that first recession. n/t

[w8liftinglady]

5. one of my local churches belongs to Angel Food Ministries

http://www.angelfoodministries.com/
They allow anyone to participate.A lot of people I work with(in the hospital) use them.

[greenbriar]

6. I have contemplated using it

have you?

what is the food like?

[w8liftinglady]

7. The food is decent...saved my ass a couple of times

there's no way you can buy that much food for 30 bucks in a grocery store.

[MonteLukast]

8. In South Denver...

... at one food bank, they take leftovers from the local Whole Foods.

That's a thought I've had for a while: as we see more middle class become poor, we're going to see a lot more food-allergic people, gluten-intolerant people, and people used to eating organic, coming to food banks.

It seems so far-fetched, with everything else going on; but just what DO you do when you have celiac and you need to go to the food pantry? Gluten is everywhere.

[w8liftinglady]

9. maybe you could network or barter with others in your area?

[MonteLukast]

13. I've thought about opening a website...

... that clues people in to sales at every store.

I'm not unfortunate enough (yet) to need the services of a food pantry. And I've actually been able to skirt the food price issue on milk, for instance, by taking advantage of the "manager's specials" at King Soopers. Sometimes, believe it or not, the cheapest milk could be found at Whole Foods.

I'm good at scouting out deals, and that's where I could help people best, I think. How does a person get the word out, particularly to those who have no Internet at home? It looks like a majority of those 60 and under have the Internet at home, but for those over 70 especially, it could be a bit more of a challenge.

[area51]

30. Great idea.

:thumbsup:

[Patiod]

25. My friend's dad almost died of that before he was diagnosed

This was 20 years ago. He kept losing weight - looked like a skeleton, and they were sure they were going to lose him.

He was the first person I ever heard diagnosed with this. Once he went to rice-based products, he gained the weight back, and has been OK.

[greenbriar]

10. so what did you get

I have made contact with a church 3 blocks away from my house but I haven't actually ordered anything yet


just don't know.

can you tell me about the variety and quality?

[w8liftinglady]

11. if you are vegetarian,forget it

if you are creative,you can spruce things up.Meat in sealed packages,eggs."store brand" veggies,pasta.My local bank had some recipes,plus I used seasoning I had at home.It is enough for 2 weeks of food for a family of 3-4,with some of your own stuff thrown in.

[lonestarnot]

12. Get a load of this.

I took my ma to the store Saturday. She couldn't get much, but enough to survive (I throw down when I can, this week I couldn't) so, get her home with her groceries and I leave. Today she calls me and apparently either the store kept a sack of her food (which they denied when I took her back there tonight) or someone stole her crap right out of the house (which I doubt because she has two dobermans that when off the leash or harness do not like strangers). Any way, it's a mystery. The store gave in to replacing it for her after my reminder that she is blind, on a fixed income, and has traded there for 20 fucking years. 1 round roll of hamburger, and 4 cans of fruit. Guess people are pulling shit at the store. Holy crap we suck. So far we've held off the wolves, but I don't know about next month. :) I may have to borrow the moose's plane and eat them!

[NNadir]

14. My wife has been working at the Trenton soup kitchen as a volunteer.

So far she says the food looks pretty good.

That's great, of course.

My wife said that last week a client came in wearing an Obama hat and insisting that all three volunteers she was working with vote for Obama.

My wife didn't know who the other volunteers were voting for, but it turns out they were all OK.

"That goes without saying," said the oldest of the three.

[VAliberal]

15. The local food pantry board on which I serve

met today.

We have been just about wiped clean by the need - as opposed to a year ago when we had so much we were donating our stocks to other food pantries.

We give out supplements for heating oil and rent as well and those resources are definitely being tapped.

The working class and working poor are being hammered by the Bush economy.

First Tuesday in November can't get here soon enough.

[1]

16. wait! church = christian. and du taught me christian = bad, right?

so now you are saying they might not be?

i'm confused. how am i supposed to vote in an online poll about this effort?

[Stellabella]

18. No, first of all church doesn't necessarily equal christian.

The equation is nosy, judgmental christian (or any other form of life) = bad

The problem occurs when one person or a group of people think they can force their beliefs and way of life on another. And teach that the 'other' is bad, or condemned.

[1]

24. oh. ok. as long as those "nosy, judgmental christians" aren't feeding anybody, i'm down with that.

if those "nosy, judgmental christians" start feeding the poor then i have a problem with that.

better they starve...

:sarcasm:

[Stellabella]

31. No, sorry.

If Christians tie feeding the poor to proselytizing, that is unacceptable.

I have yet to see James Dobson or Pat Robertson 'feeding the poor'. All they do is pass judgment and condemn people.

[SpiralHawk]

27. Rabid, hate-filled, crusade-skewed perversions of 'christianity' are bad

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you Christians -- the real Christians -- are, as always, good.

Right wingers cannot pervert the teachings of Christ and expect people to approve. That's Totally Bad.

[glinda]

17. The Religious right want you to go to Churches for everything

in the future after they cut all the social programs. You will have to get food, clothing, counseling, babysitting, everything there.

[brentspeak]

22. What does this have to do with the Religious Right?

A lot of churches involved in food drives are not Religious Right churches.

[ChazII]

23. Very true.

Some churches actually try to walk Jesus' walk and take care of the poor in spirit. Two churches that have belonged to have food banks on their grounds and don't preach. They box up food for the families and no pressure or God talk. Both just happen to be Chrisitan.

[brer cat]

19. So much need, and yet a lot of food goes to waste.

I wish that I had the organization and persuasion skills to mobilize home canners and growers into this loop. Even with a very small garden, my sister and I share our produce, and we see late in the season very good produce left to rot on the vine in many gardens. Every day on my walk I pass by a couple of lovely apple trees full of fruit that is being allowed to drop on the ground and rot. I would be glad to make apple sauce, jelly, etc. to share.

I wonder if food banks would even accept home canned food.

[greenbriar]

33. good suggestions

it breaks my heart to see such need

[shireen]

20. if you can afford, please try to help

even small monthly donations makes a difference. An easy way to do it is using
http://www.networkforgood.org/
they have an extensive database of local, national, and international organizations, including food banks.

I make donations in the memory of family members who have passed away, i think it's something they would have appreciated.

[tigereye]

21. I sent a bunch of money to the local ones this summer

it saddens me to think of people without enough to feed their families... :cry:

[noonwitch]

29. My church needs to step up on the food donations.

We do them a few times a year, but this is something we should have every week. It doesn't cost much to donate a can or two a week, and a big church can get lots of food.

If they need volunteers to bring the food to Gleaners, then they should get the youth group to do it.

[greenbriar]

32. I want to do the Angel ministry but do not want to take food from someone else

I am still able to go to the store and buy pretty much what I want, but I like the discount price



would I be taking someone's share that really needs it?

[Morrisons Ghost]

34. Greenbriar?

Aren't you gainfully employed as a teacher? I always thought a food pantry was for people who are out of a job or really struggling to use rather than being used as a discount grocery store. There has to be something you can cut from the budget to be able to afford food.