CINCINNATI (AP) -- Operators of free food
banks say they are seeing more working people needing
assistance. The increased demand is outstripping supplies and
forcing many pantries and food banks to cut portions.
Demand is being driven up by rising costs of
food, housing, utilities, health care and gasoline, while food
manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers are finding they have
less surplus food to donate and government help has decreased,
according to Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio
Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks.
''I've been doing this for 20 years, and I
can't believe how much worse it gets month after month,'' she
said.
Diana Blasingame has lately found herself
having to go to a free food pantry once a month to feed herself
and her teenage daughter.
''I'm pretty good at making things stretch
as far as I can, but food is so high now and I have to have gas
in my car to do my job,'' said Blasingame, 46, who earns $9 an
hour as a home health aide. ''I work full time, but I don't have
health insurance and sometimes there just isn't enough to pay
bills and buy food.''
''We have food banks in virtually every city
in the country, and what we are hearing is that they are all
facing severe shortages with demand so high,'' Ross Fraser, a
spokesman for America's Second Harvest -- The Nation's Food Bank
Network, the nation's largest hunger relief group, said Friday.
''One of our food banks in Florida said demand is up 35 percent
over this time last year.''
The
U.S. Department of Agriculture's annual hunger survey
released Wednesday showed that more than 35.5 million people in
the United States were hungry in 2006. While that number was
about the same as the previous year, heads of food banks and
pantries say many more people are seeking their assistance.
Tony Hall, vice president of the Food Bank
of Southwest Georgia, estimates a 10 percent to 20 percent
increase in demand for food in the 20-county area the
organization serves. He cites cutbacks by local companies,
rising fuel costs and the lingering impact of a March tornado
that tore through Americus, Ga., destroying or damaging hundreds
of homes.
''We really didn't rebound from that,'' Hall
said Friday. ''We're definitely down in donations. Each year the
demand gets bigger and bigger.''
Supplies are down to a little over 8 million
pounds of food from a peak of about 12 million pounds two years
ago at Hocking-Athens-Perry Community Action, which provides
food bank services in 10 counties in southeast Ohio.
''We've lost factory jobs and many service
jobs don't pay a livable wage,'' said Dick Stevens, director of
the organization's food and nutrition division. ''We see a lot
of desperation in families who are trying to figure out how to
pay higher fuel and utility costs and still put food on the
table.''
Most food banks and pantries aren't
optimistic about the coming winter.
''November weather has been relatively mild,
and you haven't seen the cost of home heating fuel added to what
a family has to deal with,'' said Evelyn Behm, associate
director of the Mid-Ohio Food Bank, which supplies food to
pantries, soup kitchens and other charities in 20 central and
eastern Ohio counties. ''Those prices, we all know, are going up
substantially this year.''
At the Society of St. Vincent de Paul food
pantry in Cincinnati, clients now get three or four days' worth
of food instead of six or seven.
''We are trying to stretch our resources to
help more people,'' said Liz Carter, executive director of the
society. ''But it's so difficult when you see the desperation
and have to tell them you just don't have enough to give them
what they need.''
Officials with the Regional Food Bank of
Northeastern New York, which serves nearly 1,000 agencies in 23
counties, also are worried.
Through the end of August, the food bank was
down almost 700,000 pounds of USDA commodities that include
basic essentials such as canned fruit and vegetables and some
meat -- food that is very difficulty to make up in donations,
Executive Director Mark Quandt said.
''We're bracing ourselves for a very tough
winter, especially with home heating fuel prices at record highs
in the Northeast,'' Quandt said. ''People living in poverty or
near poverty just can't sustain those types of increases.''
Associated Press writers Dan Sewell in
Cincinnati and Doug Whiteman in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to
this story.
November 19, 2007
Technology has allowed
wholesalers like Kraft and Nabisco to produce a better product
and less of items that they perceive not saleable to consumers
but are still usable.
"Donations from those
companies have fallen dramatically even though technology has
gotten better with production distribution," said Tina Osso,
executive director of Shared Harvest Foodbank.
Donations from wholesalers
makes up 50 percent or 4 million pounds of Shared Harvest's food
distribution to local pantries. The other half is fresh produce
and private donations.
"(Wholesalers) donate their
own saleables like damaged, overproduction or close to
expiration canned goods. Or it could be an error on the process
label that says salt when there's no salt. But the food is still
wholesome," Osso said.
Such mislabels and damaged
goods is how Osso founded Shared Harvest on Dixie Highway in
1983. As more and more discount stores like Big Lots and Family
Dollar surfaced, so did food that goes to the foodbank.
So when neighborhood pantries
say their shelves are bare, Shared Harvest's warehouse is empty.
It's also why, Osso explained, school and church food drives are
so important.
With programs like the Kroger
Retail Project, in which Shared Harvest workers pick up donated
food from various locations, it helps supplement the food bank.
They also receive food from Bigg's grocery.
But, according to Osso, it's
not enough to support all of the food pantries in the area.
One of the solutions is the
Food Stamp Outreach, which signs up eligible residents for the
federal benefit to help alleviate dependency on pantries.
"That's what keeps up alive
right now," Osso said.
Contact this reporter at
(513) 820-2180 or
chubbard@coxohio.com.
November 19, 2007
Ohio Advocates for the Poor says more working
families need
help with food.
Marilyn Smith
COLUMBUS
(2007-11-13) As the holidays near, a growing number of working
ohio families are turning to non-profit agencies for food.
The executive
director of a statewide charitable oversight agency says its
most recent figures show one out of every ten Ohioans turned to
charity for food between July and September.
And, advocates
says the situation is getting worse. WOSU's Marilyn Smith
reports.
Angela Malone's
husband turned to general contracting after losing his full time
job several years ago. The mother of four children, Malone says
the family has since had its ups and downs but lately the lean
times have outnumbered the good.
The family's home
is in foreclosure and Malone has turned to the food pantry at
St. Stephen's Community House on the northeast side of Columbus
for help. Malone says it is very humbling to stand in line for
food.
Malone is not alone. Forty-five year old Cynthia Arnold moved
from Georgia to Ohio seven years ago to be closer to her father.
She became ill during the transition at a time when she was
jobless and homeless.
Arnold found
treatment at St. Stephen's. Today, Arnold has a place to live
and a job. But a salary hovering just above minimum wage and no
benefits force her to turn to St. Stephan's when gas and
groceries compete for dwindling dollars.
St. Stephen's
Executive Director Michelle Mills says the community house is
seeing a more working families each month; on average
seventy-five to one-hundred-fifteen more.
Mills says some
potential St. Stephen's donors are reluctant to give this year
citing their own precarious financial situations. Fewer
donations, Mills says, are jeopardizing the center's major
holiday drive, Christmas Care.
Mills says
something has got to give. St. Stephen's needs to feed two
thousand families on December twenty-second.
Based on a count
conducted from July first through September thirtheth, Second
Harvest Foodbanks Executive Director Lisa Hamler-Fugitt says
agencies under the Second Harvest umbrella provided food to
one-point-two million Ohioans.
Four-
hundred-ninety-three thousand of those, she says were children.
Hamler-Fugitt says this growing demand for food comes at a time
when resources are drying up.
She says stores
like Cosco and Target are creating secondary markets for food
that did not previously exist. Food once targeted for
distribution among the poor is now being sold.
Hamler-Fugitt
says the overall economy, an increase in the cost of food and
gasoline, wage stagnation and unemployment are making it
difficult for ohio working families to make ends meet.
Both Mills and
Hamler-Fugitt see little relief in the near future. Mills
predicts in the future some non-profits will be forced to merge
or close at a time when more and more Ohioans are turning to
them for help.
Hamler-Fugitt
says there is something wrong in America when working people
can't afford to buy food in the grocery store and must wait
inline at the food pantry.
Stay-at-home mom,
Angela Malone isn't taking any chances. She's in training to be
a day care provider to supplement the family's spotty income.
Marilyn Smith,
WOSU News
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wosu/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1182625§ionID=1
June 5, 2007
Ohio Hunger and Poverty Trends Detailed in New Publication
New Report
Chronicles Participation and Service Gaps in Ohio in Eight
Federal Nutrition Programs, Calls on Congress to Seize
Opportunities to Strengthen Programs
Columbus, Ohio
– June 5, 2004 – The nation’s federal nutrition programs have a
wide reach, but too many Ohio residents continue to slip through
the nutrition safety net, according to a new report released
today by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC). Ohio
Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks released the Ohio data
and called on state policymakers, agencies, and the Ohio
Congressional delegation to seize opportunities to strengthen
programs that get food to struggling households.
Compiled
annually by the Food Research and Action Center, State of the
States provides a comprehensive snapshot of hunger, poverty,
and federal nutrition programs for the nation and each state.
The report includes detailed information on the extent of
hunger, participation in eight federal nutrition programs
(including food stamps, WIC and school meals), and economic data
for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
“By taking better advantage of these programs, we
would make significant strides in addressing hunger and poverty
in our communities,” said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director
of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks. “But, we
also need to improve and strengthen federal nutrition programs,
and we should seize the opportunity when we have it. Right now,
the Farm Bill gives us a chance to make a needed added federal
investment in the Food Stamp Program to serve even more families
struggling against hunger.”
Findings from the report include:
-
64 percent of eligible individuals are
participating in the Food Stamp Program in Ohio. Of the
working poor that are eligible for the program, only 58
percent are participating.
-
Participation in the summer food program
changed by only 3.1 percent over the past ten years in Ohio.
-
13 percent (1,450,650) of Ohio residents live
in poverty, and 13.6 percent are considered to be
food-insecure.
Outlook / Next
Steps
On the national
level, there are a number of opportunities to increase
investment in the nutrition programs. Congressional committees
this month are taking up the Farm Bill, which includes the Food
Stamp Program. The Farm Bill presents an opportunity to
strengthen the Food Stamp Program by increasing currently
inadequate benefit levels, expanding access to the program among
the poor, and simplifying the program. Proposals to do just that
have been introduced in Congress.
About the
Report
FRAC’s State
of the States contains the latest data from official
government sources. The federal nutrition programs covered are:
Food Stamps, School Lunch, School Breakfast, Summer Food, the
Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), WIC, The Emergency
Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), and the Commodity Supplemental
Food Program (CSFP). The report also details economic and social
indicators such as food insecurity, poverty, and minimum wage
levels.
The Ohio
Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks (OASHF) represents 12
foodbanks, which distribute food to more than 3,300 member
charities, including food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless
shelters, and other food assistance organizations, located
across Ohio in all 88 counties.
Attachment:
Ohio Report of Demographics, Poverty and Food Insecurity
Press Release Pdf.
CONTACT:
Lisa
Hamler-Fugitt, Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks,
614/221-4336 or 614/271-4803 (cell)
HUNGER AWARENESS DAY JUNE 5 SHEDS LIGHT ON THE FACE OF HUNGER
More than 1.2
million "faces" in Ohio turn to emergency food programs each
year
COLUMBUS - On June 5, the 12
foodbanks that are part of the Ohio Association of Second
Harvest Foodbanks will join forces with more than 200 foodbanks
and more than 20,000 hunger relief providers across the nation
that are members of America's Second Harvest to observe National
Hunger Awareness Day. The 2007 theme is "The Face of Hunger
Will Surprise You", intended to draw attention to the growing
number of low-income Americans struggling to make ends meet and
making difficult choices about paying for food or other
necessities, like medicine, housing, gasoline or utilities.
"Sadly, the face of hunger in Ohio
today crosses so many groups, thus we are looking to Congress
and the leadership of Senator Sherrod Brown to help strengthen
the Food Stamp Program," said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt,
Executive Director of OASHF. "Our clients are young and old, men
and women, working and looking for work, urban and rural, black
and white, families and those who live alone. The common bond
they all share is that they don't know when or if they might
have access to food. These are the families that come to our
food pantries as a lifeline after exhausting all other
resources."
"Too many Ohio families go hungry each month because of
antiquated method for calculating food stamps benefits. I am
proud to cosponsor the Food Stamp Fairness and Benefit
Restoration Act, which will end the
erosion of food stamp benefits for low-income Ohioans and
improve food security for all Americans," Senator Brown said.
Among the greatest challenges facing low-income working families
in Ohio today is the rising price of gasoline. Not only do
gasoline prices directly affect Ohioans fueling up their cars,
but high costs for gas
also have negatively affected the cost of goods and services and
have raised the price of food.
OASHF and its network of providers serve more than 1.2 million
Ohioans each year, distributing more than 92 million pounds of
food and grocery items. Of those clients served, more than
150,000 are seniors, and
nearly 422,000 are children. They are in Ohio's cities and farm
communities. Nationwide, the America's Second Harvest Network
provided food assistance to more than 25 million low-income
hungry people in the
United States, including nine million children and nearly 3
million seniors.
OASHF represents 12 foodbanks, which distribute food to more
than 3,300 member charities, including food pantries, soup
kitchens, homeless shelters, and other food assistance
organizations, located across Ohio in all 88 counties.
Hunger Awareness Day now in its SIXTH year, this day serves as a
platform for domestic hunger-relief organizations to raise
awareness about hunger in America and the work we do. Hunger
Awareness Day gives us the opportunity to gather our resources,
supporters, and voices in focusing the nation's attention on one
of the most solvable problems facing every community in America.
Increasing awareness that domestic hunger is a real and growing
problem will help ensure that there are enough resources to feed
hungry Americans.
Food Stamp Fairness
Act
Section by Section: Food Stamp Fairness Act
CONTACT: Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, Ohio Association of Second Harvest
Foodbanks, 614/221-4336 or 614/271-4803 (cell)