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WORLD> America
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US food banks under pressure to address rising demand
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-14 16:37 The hungry are also adopting resourceful strategies, such as embracing urban gardening and substituting cheaper foods, and it is no longer as common for people to wait in long lines at food banks in order to put food on the table.
For example, demand has increased 25 percent over the last half a year to 180 bags a week at Farm-to-City Market Basket Program, which delivers bags of up to 25 pounds (11.3 kilograms) of fruit and vegetables to neighborhoods in Chicago and across Wisconsin. The bags cost $16 but are worth $25. The majority who buy the baskets are middle- and low-income, said Will Allen, a former professional basketball player who runs the nonprofit, Growing Power, which sponsors the food delivery program and promotes urban gardening. "A lot of people are just too proud to go to a food bank, or food pantry or soup kitchen," Allen said. Making the best of a difficult situation, Jacque Holland, 43, of Milwaukee, has substituted sausage she received from the food pantry for ground beef when she makes spaghetti sauce. Holland, who began visiting food banks after losing her temporary pizza factory job October 31, also buys cheaper, canned tuna instead of fresh fish. "Things are changing and you just have to change with it," she said. After learning about the troubles food banks were having, a group of fishermen in Southern California donated boats, bait and deck hands for a deep-sea fishing excursion whose purpose was to supply FOOD Share in Ventura County, California. The first expedition was December 8 near the Channel Islands, but more are expected. "The true challenge will be to keep these types of activities going after the holidays, when people are not as apt to think about the hungry," said Ann Sobel, special projects consultant at FOOD Share. A decade ago, 80 percent of the food donated to Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee came from manufacturers and distribution centers, while the rest was purchased. Today it's the opposite, said Jaynee Day, the Nashville-based food bank's president. For the past five years the food bank, the only one in the US cooking its own food and freezing it on a large scale basis on site, has been cooking around 50 recipes with food donated from grocery stores that is still good but not marketable. They make on average 15,000 meals per day for 550 food banks in their area and in 43 states. Like many others, demand has spiked in recent months but monetary and food donations are way down. "We've never been this far behind," Day said.
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