Food Banks, in a Squeeze, Tighten Belts

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Food Banks, in a Squeeze, Tighten Belts

www.nytimes.com/2007/11/30/us/30food.html?_r=1 & th= & adxnnl=1 & oref=slogin & emc=th & a\

dxnnlx=1196431741-Xdr3NBShdfWesbsbNwbq8w & pagewanted=all

By KATIE ZEZIMA

Published: November 30, 2007

MANCHESTER, N.H., Nov. 26 — Food banks around the country are reporting

critical shortages that have forced them to ration supplies, distribute

staples usually reserved for disaster relief and in some instances close.

“It’s one of the most demanding years I’ve seen in my 30 years” in the

field, said D’Amato, president and chief executive of the

Greater Boston Food Bank, comparing the situation to the recession of

the late 1970s.

Experts attributed the shortages to an unusual combination of factors,

including rising demand, a sharp drop in federal supplies of excess farm

products, and tighter inventory controls that are leaving supermarkets

and other retailers with less food to donate.

“We don’t have nearly what people need, and that’s all there is to it,”

said Greg , director of the food pantry in Sheffield, Vt.

“We’re one step from running out,” Mr. said.

“It kind of spirals,” he added. “The people that normally donate to us

have less, the retailers are selling to discount stores because people

are shopping in those places, and now we have less food and more people.

It’s a double, triple, hit.”

The Vermont Food Bank said its supply of food was down 50 percent from

last year. “It’s a crisis mode,” said Doug O’Brien, the bank’s chief

executive.

For two weeks this month, the New Hampshire Food Bank distributed

supplies reserved for emergency relief. Demand for food here is up 40

percent over last year and supply is down 30 percent, which is striking

in the state with the lowest reliance on food banks.

“It’s the price of oil, gas, rents and foreclosures,” said

Gosselin, executive director of the New Hampshire Food Bank.

Ms. Gosselin said household budget squeezes had led to a drop in

donations and greater demand. “This is not the old ‘only the homeless

are hungry,’” she said. “It’s working people.”

Lane Kenworthy, a professor of sociology and political science at the

University of Arizona, agreed, saying: “The overall picture is that

household incomes are kind of stuck. There’s very little way to increase

income, and most people have a very heavy debt load. Any event that

increases your costs is really, really troublesome, because you’re

already stretched thin.”

The food bank in Manchester delivers provisions to a housing project

each week, and on a recent Monday, Whooley, 26, of Manchester,

was waiting in line with his wife, Penny, and their four children.

“Every week there’s less and less food,” Mr. Whooley said. “It used to

be potatoes, meat and bread, and last week we got Doritos and flour. The

food is getting shorter, and the lines keep getting longer.”

In part, food banks are suffering because farmers are doing well. The

food banks rely on supplies from the federal Agriculture Department’s

Bonus Commodity Program, which buys surplus crops like apples and

potatoes from farmers.

“Right now, the agricultural economy is very strong and the surpluses

aren’t available for us to purchase,” said , a department

spokeswoman. “Certainly we’re empathetic, but unfortunately we cannot

count on those bonus commodities every year.”

Supplies from the surplus program dropped to $67 million worth last

year, from $154.3 million in 2005 and $233 million in 2004. Figures for

this year are not available, Ms. said.

Food bank operators are lobbying for passage of a farm bill currently

stalled in the Senate that would raise emergency aid for food banks to

$250 million a year, from $140 million. That figure has remained steady

since 2002.

nah , executive director of the Food Bank of Alaska said,

“The biggest problem is that the federal government’s programs are

dropping as need is growing.”

Ms. said the decline has affected rural Alaska, where native

tribes run most food pantries. She said about 10 percent of the state’s

rural food banks have closed because there is not enough federal help

coming in.

“They don’t feel staffing and heating is worth it for the small amount

of food,” Ms. said.

Further complicating the picture, Ms. and others said, is tighter

inventory monitoring, which has left many stores with less to donate.

“They know exactly what they have, down to the can,” said Darren

Hoffman, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, whose

supplies are down 11 percent this year. “They can track a lot better and

don’t order in bulk. Efficiency has kind of been the enemy of the food

bank.”

Extra food — items that are not selling or seasonal inventory that is no

longer needed — is now often sold to low-cost retailers, said Tim Viall,

executive director of the Greater Stockton Food Bank in Stockton, Calif.

“We’re getting fewer canned goods than last year from retail grocers,

because they’re selling it to warehouse food stores,” Mr. Viall said.

“We’re putting more reliance on canned food drives, and we’re trying to

ramp up the fresh fruit and produce. We are in the heart of one of the

most productive agriculture areas in the world, and we’re trying to take

advantage.” In places where community donations are down and there are

no food manufacturers to solicit, pantries and food banks are making

difficult choices. The Society of St. de food pantry in

Cincinnati is giving families less food this year because there is not

enough. It has started to ask smaller families to take fewer products.

“Donations are down, and people who need help is up,” said Liz ,

executive director of the food bank. “So what are we going to do. We

just made the decision that instead of giving people six or seven days

worth of food, we’re going to give them three or four days of food,

which is a drop in the bucket.”

Ginny Hildebrand, executive director of the Association of Arizona Food

Banks, said many pantries were facing similar situations.

At a recent conference for food bank employees, Ms. Hildebrand said,

“Everybody was saying the same thing. They’re all hit by an increase in

demand, all hit by the impact of the higher costs of food, and all hit

by federal reductions. We just don’t have the quantity of products

available that we used to.”

Ross Fraser, a spokesman for America’s Second Harvest, which distributes

more than two billion pounds of donated food and grocery products

annually, said the shortages at food banks were the worst the

organization had seen in 26 years.

“Suddenly it’s on everyone’s radar,” Mr. Fraser said. “Food banks are

calling us and saying, ‘My God, we have to get food.’”

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ne Holden, MS, RD < fivestar@... >

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