Food Drives Help Fill Food Bank Pantries, Ease Hunger

http://www.aarp.org/giving-back/volunteering/info-06-2011/food-drives-senior-food-pantries-ga.html

by: Don O'Briant | from: AARP Bulletin | June 1, 2011

Catherine Ashley gets bags of free groceries every month at a Macon food bank to supplement the $34 she receives in government food aid.

"If they didn't give us that food, I don't know what in the world we would do," said Ashley, 70, who lives on a disability check of $694 a month.

Ashley is one of many older Georgians who rely on both privately operated food banks and the grocery money she gets through the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — formerly called food stamps.

The need is so great that many food banks are feeling the pinch. Nearly one of every six Georgia households sometimes runs out of money to buy groceries, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says.

[...]

The donations are crucial, said Laura Lester, director of advocacy and education for the Atlanta Community Food Bank.

"The government expects the private sector to step in, but I'm not sure we can do much more. This network of food banks and churches is stretched beyond capacity," she said.



[.....]

..