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ECONOMY-HUNGER Nov-18-2008 (1,260 words) Roundup. With graphic. xxxn
Food pantries facing double whammy of greater need, fewer donors
By Mary Iapalucci
Catholic News Service
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (CNS) -- While economic indicators continue to tumble, the number of people turning to parish food pantries continues to climb. In many cases, pantries are struggling to meet the increased demand.
"We used to be able to fill up the shelves. Now, soon as it's there, it goes out," said Father Tom Coby, pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Riverhead, where the number of people seeking help has nearly doubled in recent months.
According to Mary Rubert, coordinator of social ministry at the parish, they used to serve between 350 and 400 people a month. In August, that number rose to 454. It jumped to 560 in September and more than 600 people in October.
Across the country it's the same story. At People of Progress, a food bank and emergency assistance charity in Redding, Calif., executive director Melinda Brown said that she's seeing "more and more new people, and a lot of working people, which is new."
The working people are getting food from the charity to make their paychecks stretch to the end of the month, she said. "We're seeing people who have never asked for help before."
A new report from the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed that in 2007 13 million households experienced "food insecurity," meaning their access to adequate food was limited by a lack of money and other resources. That was 11.1 percent of all U.S. households.
About one-third of food-insecure households (4.7 million, or 4.1 percent of all U.S. households) had very low food security, that is, the food intake of some household members was reduced and their normal eating patterns disrupted during 2007.
In the San Francisco area, George Slepnitkoff has noticed a lot of new faces among those waiting for lunch at the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in San Mateo.
"It's seem like the line is getting longer every day," said Slepnitkoff, a parolee who is staying in a friend's carport as he works with the society to line up permanent housing. St. Vincent de Paul officials say they have seen a marked increase in meals served since August at the agency's locations in South San Francisco and San Mateo.
The San Mateo location served 1,800 meals in October, compared with 1,500 for a typical month, according to Lorraine Moriarty, executive director.
In the central Oregon city of Bend, "requests have increased tremendously," said Christine King, who directs social services for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul there. Food pantry shelves are now depleted early each week.
The most frightening statistic, King said, is the number receiving aid for the first time in October -- about triple what was normal just a year ago.
King said more families are being forced to apply for food stamps and now that food prices have risen, the food budget runs out earlier in the month. This winter, with high heating costs, could put more families over the edge, she added.
"The supply and demand are not meeting," said Veronica Kennedy of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Portland, adding that the charity's central emergency services office is "inundated with big lines."
Things aren't any better in America's heartland. When three other family members moved in with Pam Andrews and her husband last year, she started visiting Catholic Charities' Branch I food shelf in Minneapolis. Now she needs the food shelf more than ever to stretch the family's monthly budget, she said.
Andrews, 56, had used the food shelf off and on over the years when she and her husband hit rough times. However, whenever they were doing well, Andrews said she volunteered at the shelf and donated food "to give back."
Even with the help provided by the food shelf, however, there's still not enough food, she said. The three adults have skipped breakfast regularly for about four months so the two children -- ages 9 and 2 -- get their fill.
Andrews is aghast at the price of milk, lunch meat and coffee, items she said she can't get at the food shelf.
"You can barely touch beef now," she said. "And fresh produce is completely out of sight."
At food pantries around the St. Louis metro area, bad economic news is old news. Even so, a dramatic increase has been seen in the requests for free food in recent months.
"Hunger is winning," said Circle of Concern director Glenn Koenen. On World Food Day, Oct. 16, he said there were "more hungry people in St. Louis, more hungry people in Missouri and Illinois and more hungry people around the world."
A record number of people are asking Circle of Concern and other food pantries for help, he noted. Demand is up 20 percent from last year at his agency.
"At Circle we now feed as many people in a week as we did in a month just a decade ago," Koenen said. "Without more resources winter will be bleak for many of our neighbors."
Melaney Swenson, director of Catholic Charities of Idaho's regional office in Boise, said what's scary about the current economic downturn isn't the number of homeowners coming in looking for mortgage help. It isn't the increase in the number of people who have lost good-paying jobs and need counseling for the first time. What's scariest is that the worst is yet to come.
"I've never seen anything on this kind of scale before," she said Nov. 11.
Only the agency response to Hurricane Katrina could begin to compare with the impact of the country's current economic crisis, she said. The difference between the demand for aid then and now is that people were able to donate generously to rebuild Gulf coast communities. Today, people just don't have the money to give, Swenson said.
It's particularly devastating when a landlord loses a home, because all his renters are left to find housing. Swenson said Interfaith Sanctuary, a family shelter that opened in downtown Boise last year with the help of a diocesan loan, reported that it is at or near capacity every night.
Many of the new clients she's seen are homeless for the first time, or have a history of chronic homelessness but have been in stable housing and were thought to have escaped the latest plight. "Losing your home is a terrible place to be," she said.
New York City budget cuts will keep more than 20 parishes in the Queens borough from opening their homeless shelters this winter.
Eva Vitti-Sterling, parish manager at St. Andrew Avellino Parish in Flushing, said the closing of the shelter ends a mutual relationship that has lasted more than a quarter-century.
For 26 years parishioners had provided home-cooked meals for the men, stayed overnight in the shelter, talked with and played games with the men, and made them breakfast in the morning, she said.
The men "felt safe here," and were able to leave their "meager belongings" under the beds during the day, Vitti-Sterling said. Parishioners had the "joy of sharing," as is stated in their parish mission statement: "We strive to be a caring, welcoming and inclusive Christian community growing in our faith formation and our commitment to serving others."
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Contributing to this roundup were Denise MacLachlan in Sacramento, Rick DelVecchio in San Francisco, Ed Langlois in Portland, Maria Wiering in Minneapolis, Joseph Kenny in St. Louis, Michael Brown in Boise and Linda Busetti in Queens.
END
Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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