Need Increases While Donations Fall -- Food Pantres in Crisis

[theHandpuppet]

The following story in today's paper comes out of the Cincinnati area, but I know that my own local food bank here in WV put out the same warning of a food shortage crisis. Demand is up and donations are down.

Ain't things grand? Millions are losing homes and jobs while the elite feast off the lifeblood of the nation's poor and middle classes. Can't afford a mortgage, a doctor visit, or food on the table? God bless Amurika!

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071115/NEWS01/711150368
Food pantries face hard times
Area's relief agencies cutting back to stretch supplies
BY PEGGY O'FARRELL

(excerpt)
"Right now, we're giving clients three or four days' worth of food, where before we gave them six or seven days' worth," said Liz Carter, executive director of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Greater Cincinnati. "It's horrible."

From June through September, 6,604 people went to St. Vincent de Paul's West End food pantry for help - an 18 percent increase from the same period in 2006, Carter said.

At the same time, donations dropped about 30 percent in the last year or so.

Job losses, coupled with higher costs for food, fuel and utilities, push some families over the edge, Carter said....

Please remember your local food pantry. Thank you.