Food pantries struggle to meet rising demand - 12.6M+ USA homes find it hard to feed kids

[Breeze54]

Food pantries struggle to meet rising demand

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/03/food_pantries_struggle_to_meet.html

by Mary L. Lawrence | The Saginaw News
Monday March 24, 2008, 1:09 PM

Eating or heating? Pills or produce?

Families are facing difficult decisions as rising food prices and shrinking household budgets
send more mid-Michigan residents to soup kitchens and food pantries to make ends meet.

As a result, food assistance agencies are running low on supplies.

"People are making some hard choices. Senior citizens especially are having to decide between
buying food or getting a prescription filled to make their budgets last," said Rich Premo,
president and chief executive officer of Hidden Harvest.

"We don't give donations directly to individuals, but the food pantries are telling us their
shelves are nearly bare. Our goal this year is 137,000 pounds of food a month. We're exceeding
that goal, and the agencies still need food."

Saginaw's East Side Soup Kitchen is feeding more than 300 people a day.

"That's about 80 more hungry people a day compared to two years ago," said Pam Cole, director
of the agency at 940 E. Genesee in Saginaw.

At the same time, Cole said, cash contributions have dropped by $10,000 to $15,000 this year,
and food donations have slowed. The agency spends about $2 per meal.

The kitchen serves lunch from 11 a.m. to 11:20 a.m. and 11:50 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. weekdays.

"We're seeing more people and more new faces all the time," Cole said. "We mostly need cash
donations, but we're low on canned goods and kitchen staples, too."

A 2007 U.S. Department of Agriculture report shows that 12.6 million American households were
finding it difficult to provide enough food for their families.

Federal figures released earlier this month indicate grocery costs increased 5.1 percent over
the past 12 months as the country experiences the worst grocery inflation in nearly 20 years.
The Agriculture Department predicts prices will climb another 3 to 4 percent this year.

More...

[NC_Nurse]

1. I'm getting more and more requests from local and national food banks.

I wish I could give more. :-(

[Breeze54]

2. They send you requests?

You're good to give but you also have to think of yourself too, you know. :hug:.

I can't afford to give them anything but I used to donate what I could.

That statistic that they expect food prices to rise another 4% or 5% is startling, isn't it?

That would mean food prices will have risen by 10% by the end of the year!! Yikes!! :scared:

I'm glad we're coming into the growing season. If I can find a new place to live with a plot

of land, I'm going to plant a garden. I can here and have but I have to move soon. It's getting

scary out there. I feel bad for the families with small, always hungry, kids & teens. :(

[NC_Nurse]

4. Yep. My son was home last week for Spring Break and ate us out of

house and home! I can't imagine what my food bill would be now if my kids were all teens again!
Yikes! Two in college is costing a lot too, but their dad pays tuition (phew!). We just buy clothes
and help with living expenses. I want to grow some tomatoes this year. The framer's market here is
great and better prices than the grocery store too. That helps. :hi:

[Breeze54]

11. Ugh! Teens! They eat everything in site and look for more!

:P

My son (19) works but still eats like a horse!

That's one reason he worked PT in high school!

I couldn't afford his appetite anymore! :P

PS. I hope to be growing tomato's again this year too.

[Maat]

3. We're donating to our local food pantry as much as we can ..

in light of fairly aggressive requests on their part; I don't blame them. They are feeding a record number of families. Every other house on my block in Southern Cal has gone back to the bank (and I'm in an upper class neighborhood, or I was ... no longer).

[Breeze54]

7. That's wonderful, Maat!

You are a good person. :hug:

That has to really be scary for you, if you have that many foreclosures near your property. I'd be freaking out. :(
I suppose the food pantries are getting desperate and calling in all aces, ya know? You can only do what you can do.
I grew tons of huge tomato's last year and I gave a lot to my neighbors and some to the local food pantry. I couldn't
believe the harvest I got! :D But this used to be a farm, so it has good soil for growing. I hate to leave it but I will be soon.

[Maat]

13. Tomatoes are very nutritional!

And the food bank I work with can't take fresh food due to stupid local rules; so, we give dry and canned food. We rely upon others' generosity for the fresh meat, food and vegetables.

So, the generosity of direct donors is so important.

Blessings to you and your family.

[Breeze54]

15. To you and yours, as well.

:hug:

[Solly Mack]

5. I've upped my contributions to America's 2nd Harvest

I even got a hand written note thanking me for caring about "Americans"...I am an American living in Germany...

It gave me a sad feeling

[Breeze54]

8. That's really nice they took the time to hand write a Thank You note to you.

:hug: You shouldn't be sad. You did a great thing!!

Be proud of yourself! You should be! :D

[Solly Mack]

10. It was sad because they just seemed so happy someone

they assume is not American...and that's what they think...cared enough to give to Americans.

[pengillian101]

12. I've upped my contributions to America's 2nd Harvest

Me too.

http://www.secondharvest.org/

[Breeze54]

17. That's awesome, pengillian101! and Welcome to DU!!

:hi:

:yourock:

:hug:

[Solly Mack]

19. Hi, pengillian101!

Welcome to DU! and Thank you!!!!

[goodgd_yall]

6. Wow

Ok, I see now what you meant in the other post. I stopped going to the food banks about 2 years ago. At that time, the one I went to anyway, wasn't having a hard time at all with donations.

[Breeze54]

9. Yeah but a lot has changed in the last two years.

It's getting harder and harder for people just to survive. Especially the elderly.
And Meals On Wheels have had budget cuts and it's a good thing some places have
Senior Centers that serve lunch during the day. It's pretty tough out there.

[Irishonly]

14. Our church has a food bank

and give food with no strings attached. We are in trouble and can't meet the need of the community. Another local church is afraid they will have to discontinue their hot dinner program. I love when one of the stores has dollar sales on food. It helps. We take both cash and food items. If you ever donate food please don't forget the kids. You should see their faces light up when they see some fun cereal. I have a bad habit of buying what's good for them but every once in a while they can have the other stuff.

[Breeze54]

16. Yeah, the kids need a sweet treat, once in awhile. But do the local grocery stores donate

day old bread and baked goods? They do around here and the food pantry freezes it and it
really helps a lot of families out. You are so sweet to donate your time for such a good
cause! Are you part of a regional food bank or only local? The churches in my town pooled
their resources for one food pantry they all support. :hug:

[Irishonly]

18. They Do

The city where my church is has many, many poor. Most of the kids in the district are on free or reduced lunches and many come from very large families. There are many undocumented workers and they can't get help from some social nets. Many of the churches belong to the Council of Churches which is housed at my church. It's remarkable what everyone has accomplished. We have eleven shelters for homeless families, work with women released from prison to get them going on the right track and several churches work together to make sure the homeless get at least one hot meal a day. There are just so many people needing help now. So I guess you could say we are local but everyone works together to help. There are no denominations when help is needed. One predominately black church's members will even take in homeless families while we are working to get them in a shelter. I will be so happy when the democrats are in a firm majority and are in the White House. I've been helping for a long time and this is worse than Reagan.

[Breeze54]

20. I agree! I think it's worse than Raygun too and I needed help really

bad back then. Life was extremely tough for us/me; as a single Mom with two small kids (at the time).
I won't go into detail but Raygun was a total P**** to single mothers, that's all I'll say. :grr:
And back then, rents weren't as high as they are now and utilities weren't as high either, never
mind the lack of jobs that paid diddly squat! I'm lucky we made it through and I'm lucky my kids
are all grown up now. I don't know if I could deal with this nightmare now if I had small kids.

That is fantastic, all the things you do and ways your churches are helping people. Just too cool!

:yourock: too! ;)

[Irishonly]

21. Bless You

:hug: I was still able to teach when Ray gun was president. I remember the day after the election simply because every teacher in the school was wearing black and little did we realize how grim it would be. I had started dating the wonderful guy whom I would marry and I took him grocery shopping with me. He thought I was addicted to cereal, peanut butter and crackers. Too many of my students were losing help their families depended on to survive and I would make sure there was food in my classroom as did many teachers. I am now disabled and so is my husband and money is tight. I am lucky to live in CA because I can grow some vegetables all year around. My mom was raised on a farm and taught me how to can and freeze. We have learned to live simply and give what we can. If this keeps going on thinking about it can almost make you sick. As long as we have friends to walk down this path of life with I think we will be ok.

[Breeze54]

22. I remember the day after he was elected and my youngest was sick again and I had just

got back from a grueling 10 hours in the ER and he was crying and I was crying because he was so upset and feeling lousy and my oldest sister dropped by and tried to calm us all down and then she said something similar to what you just said. She said; "You'd better get prepared to tighten your belt. The country is in for a world of hurt now..." And she was right. And "little did we realize how grim it would be." That said it all. Good thing we have good friends on DU, to help each other get through this.

:hug:

[Irishonly]

23. We Survived

I honestly don't know how we did it sometimes. I still sputter when someone quotes he lying welfare queen story. It's amazing I still get mad after all of these years and I am a fairly laid back person. I am glad you and your kids are and were ok. Repukes can't take away the caring good friends have towards each other and they never will.

[Breeze54]

24. You might get a laugh or two out of this!

The Reagan Years!

http://www.paulkienitz.net/reagan.html

A fun-filled trip back to the wacky years of Ronald Reagan's presidency.

Do memories of the glorious nineteen eightie$ fill you with a warm glow of nostalgia?
How about with a warm glow of nausea? Either way, you can now take a trip back to
those wacky fun-filled years of the Reagan administration....

* note: sarcasm is used liberally! :P

[Irishonly]

25. Priceless

I bookmarked it and sent it to my address book.:pals: