High Energy Costs, Dollar Store Demand Means Less In Non-Perishables For Food Banks

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Andrea Helms, the food bank's communications director, said several factors have made its work more difficult over the last few years. Some of those include:

The increasing cost of fuel that's needed to transport food.

A decrease in the amount of food distributed to regional food banks by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In fiscal year 2002, 31 percent of the Tarrant Area Food Bank inventory came from the USDA. In September, that had dropped to about 7 percent.

Grocery stores selling more of their nonperishable foods, like canned goods, to secondary market stores or dollar stores. Thus, they have less nonperishables to donate to nonprofits.

When the food bank can't get enough donated items like peanut butter, rice and beans, it buys them from food brokers. Those prices have risen with retail trends. For example, the food bank pays about 94 cents a jar for peanut butter, up from 81 cents about six months ago. "We are concerned about how empty we are," Helms said. "We're really going to be depending on those food drives to help bring in food this year, in November and December." Ron Parish, director of community ministries for the Community Enrichment Center in North Richland Hills, worries that food prices may hurt the donations that organizations depend upon. After all, he said, potential donors have to take care of their own families too. "We're still trying to make it work," said Parish, whose agency expects to give away 650 to 700 turkeys this year. "I've talked to several of my friends that have food pantries and food banks, and it's just getting tougher and tougher to find food we can afford to buy and that we can get donated to us."

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http://www.star-telegram.com/metro_news/story/292340.html