Charitable pantries find lean times

Except for a long list of places to donate, at the end of the article, I'm posting the whole article, even though it is so long, because it will probably only be available for a limited time at its original site.

http://www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/stories/2008/11/16/foodbank.html

Many donors can’t afford to give during downturn, but the number of families asking for something to eat is growing faster than normal.

By Rhonda Cook

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Chad Hale and Brian Lowring run five food co-ops for the Georgia Avenue Community Ministry in the Grant Park/Summerhill area of Atlanta, serving hundreds of people every month.

Lately though, the ministry is finding it harder to get an essential resource: food.

Lowring said there is less and less available when he places orders with the Atlanta Community Food Bank, a 30-year-old organization that supplies 800 charities and churches in 38 counties throughout metro Atlanta and Georgia.

“And what they do have disappears real quick, which means lots of people are looking for those items,” Lowring said.

About an hour outside of Atlanta, Jack Howell depends on a hodgepodge of food drives to supply the Cartersville Church of God pantry.

Howell, too, says he just cannot get enough from the community food bank that normally serves his agency. The church is underwriting much of the operation.

The cupboards that feed those who need assistance are bare all over metro Atlanta.

Demand has increased significantly as unemployment has risen and the economy has slammed those barely getting by already. But the charity food pantries —- and the massive food bank that supplies those pantries —- are looking at empty shelves.

“There is a lot more food going out the door than is coming in, and that’s not sustainable,” said Bill Bolling, executive director of the Atlanta Community Food Bank, which is supported by donations, grants and the 16 cents a pound it charges member organizations for food.

Only 60 percent of the food bank’s shelves are stocked at a time the charity is usually looking for storage space for its overflow of food donations. At the same time, charities’ food orders are 40 percent more than a year ago.

Many of the groups that take care of the destitute are having to find other sources for high-demand food items, such as peanut butter, jelly and cereals.

Emptying the shelves

The demand is unprecedented.

Orders placed with the community food bank last month increased 41 percent over October last year. Just since July 1, the demand has increased 14 percent while donations during that time rose only 8 percent.

“That’s very significant for us,” Bolling said. “Everything coming in is going right out the door. We are not increasing our inventory.”

That pressure is reflected in the warehouses, freezers and refrigerators of places such as the Center for Family Resources in Marietta and Must Ministries in Cobb County, where 75 percent of the shelves are empty.

Unlike years ago, 40 percent of the people coming to the food pantries have full-time jobs.

“This is a sea change for us,” Bolling said.

Erica Wiley works two jobs —- 4:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. at a call center and as a waitress on Saturdays and Sundays at a chain restaurant that recently cut her hours. Still, she can’t afford to buy food for herself and her two sons and pay rent, utility bills and her monthly car note.

Last week, her small family emptied the cabinets with all that was left —- an 88-cent box of noodles, a can of tuna and some cheese to make a concoction she calls “oodles of noodles.”

The next day, her sons “mooched” breakfast and lunch off neighbors, and their 34-year-old mother skipped a class at Kennesaw State University so she could get to the Center for Family Resources an hour and a half before they began handing out groceries. Only the first 10 people in line would get food.

Wiley, who plans to become a nurse, was third and came away with enough canned vegetables, dried beans, chicken and peanut butter to last about a week and a half.

“I was on empty,” Wiley said after volunteering a few hours at the center in exchange for the groceries. “I needed food. And God has opened a door for me.”

‘Until the crisis breaks’

“It’s kind of scary,” said Hale, executive director of the Georgia Avenue Community Ministry, which started with one food co-op in 1991. “I wonder where it’s headed. The need out there is greater but the resources are less. The [Atlanta Community] food bank is saying ‘what comes in, goes out.’ They are the reservoir for all of us. … If it should dry up as food sources, that would be disastrous.”

“I’m getting so many calls from so many people,” said Lowring, also from the Georgia Avenue ministry.

Jack Howell saw more than 2,000 families at the Cartersville pantry last month; a year ago it was about 1,000 a month.

“It just keeps increasing,” said Howell, a retired school principal who donates his time to the pantry.

At first it was a gradual increase, he said, but last month, it “jumped up about 400” families. Earlier this month, the pantry saw 700 families in just the two hours it was open that week.

“I believe we will be able to continue until the crisis breaks,” Howell said. “But I’m having to cut back on what I buy [from the community food bank]. Once I ordered Gatorade and extra desserts and candy for the kids. I’m not doing that now. I’m just staying with the basics.”

CHARITABLE FOOD PROGRAMS

There are hundreds of organizations that run food pantries. These organizations are trying to meet increased demand even as monetary and food donations stay flat or decline. Because the Atlanta Community Food Bank can’t meet the needs of all the food pantries it serves, the front-line groups are having to find other sources. Many of these groups are especially looking for turkeys, but they need food of all types.

To get help:

Call the United Way 24-hour help line —- 211