HUNGRY?: Demand at US food banks has skyrocketed recently as the economic downturn starts to bite.
Pastor Dale Morgan
HUNGRY?: Demand at US food banks has skyrocketed recently as the
economic downturn starts to bite.*
Reuters | Saturday, 28 June 2008
In the richest nation on earth, a rising number of people line up for
free food because they are struggling to put meals on the table at home.
Demand at food banks in the United States is up 15 per cent to 20 per
cent over last year and many food banks are having difficulty coping,
according to America's Second Harvest, the largest US food bank provider
with 200 in its network.
Food bank networks procure nonperishable and fresh produce from
suppliers, then stock it in warehouses before distributing it via a
chain of community food banks across the country.
The total number of people who use them is not known but the upward
trend is one sign of a US economic downturn in which soaring fuel costs
and the rising price of other basic goods have pushed many people on low
incomes or without jobs into hardship.
The banks say more people with steady jobs are turning up at their
centers to wait in line, fill out forms and collect rations of free or
reduced-price food. In a parallel development demand for government food
stamps is also rising.
"Having a (low wage) job isn't enough anymore. Having two or three jobs
isn't enough anymore," said Marcia Paulson, spokeswoman for Great Plains
Food Bank in North Dakota, where nearly half the households receiving
food stamp benefits have one or more working adults.
Olga Medina's story illustrates the dilemma for many on low wages who
said they considered their need to resort to free food a humiliation in
a country that prides itself on independence and stresses work as a sure
route to success.
Medina works full time providing homecare for old people in Douglas, on
Arizona's border with Mexico. She said she earns $1,100 dollars a month
with which she also supports her parents and a sick son, but is unable
to make ends meet due to rising food and fuel costs.
Most weeks she forages for milk, fruit and vegetables in dumpsters
outside the Safeway supermarket. One day last month she waited in line
with 147 others outside the Douglas Area Food Bank for a grocery handout
because she had no bread.
"We have to put up with a lot of humiliation just to survive," she said,
putting on a pair of sunglasses to hide tears. "It's not dignified but
we are hungry and hunger is ugly."
PROVIDING FOOD
At a giant warehouse in Monroe, Georgia, scores of volunteers and paid
workers using fork lifts or pallet jacks load food on to big trucks –
everything from carrots to frozen spare ribs to canned goods.
The warehouse is part of Angel Food Ministries, a national organisation
headquartered in Monroe that offers food at half price to people who
need it. A typical food pack contains $60 of family groceries and is
sold for $30.
The organisation, which is linked to a church, purchases food in bulk at
a discount and passes the savings on to 500,000 families a month who use
its service in 35 states, distributing through a network of churches.
Its founder, Joseph Wingo, argued that perceptions that the US economy
was doing better than is reported failed to take into account a
different reality for millions of Americans, not least senior citizens.
"Go into any community that has been devastated by job losses and you
will find there's more people (struggling to provide food) than you
think," said Wingo, who set up the organisation in response to demand in
Monroe.
BROKEN DREAMS
For Selena Lewis, 28, who owns a boutique in Alpharetta, Georgia, going
to the North Atlanta Community Food Bank brings an added irony – just
last year she donated some of her money to the bank as an act of charity.
But the downturn has stifled demand at her boutique and some days she
makes just a single sale, not enough to pay off debts and feed herself
and her son and leading to a dilemma about whether to close the boutique
and seek other work.
"I don't want to give up on my dream because the hardest thing to do is
to start," said Lewis who said she gave up a high-paying corporate
marketing job to start the boutique.
Her story illustrates how small business owners are caught up in the
downturn, but problems exist at the other end of the spectrum of age and
opportunity.
Standing in line at the Douglas food bank was Brenda Salazar, a neatly
dressed woman of retirement age, who worked for 25 years as a nursing
assistant in the city.
Now disabled, she receives $944 a month in benefits and food stamps, but
after paying rent, utilities and gassing up her car, she had just $16
for food to tide her over.
"I bought a gallon of milk, I bought a bag of green onions and a bag of
grapes. It was $17. It was three items. . .. Now I have to pray that God
will put gas in my car."