Slow economy adds to food pantries' summer woes
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| Erica Burrus photo/ Leslye Wood of Crestwood divides rice into separate containers at Feed My People in Lemay. Wood has been a volunteer for eight years at the pantry. |
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"Most of our donors come from the middle class and they cannot donate like they did," said John DeGuire, co-founder of Feed My People, 171 Kingston Drive, Lemay. "At the food pantry level, we feel we've been in a recession for eight or nine months."
Summer traditionally brings parents the challenge of furnishing ten additional meals per week for each child in their family. School programs provide breakfast and lunch during the school months. Donations also shrink in the summer as churches and schools are less active and many families depart on vacations.Feed My People deals with these dilemmas by saving non-perishable food from the holiday season, which is the best for charity donations. They also hold food drives. This strategy always saw them through the summer months - until last summer.
More families are seeking help from food pantries because of the declining value of the dollar and rising gas and food prices. The pantry now assists 15 to 30 percent more families than they did a year ago, Deguire said. Food donations have diminished as well, making it more difficult to stockpile food for the summer.
Larger organizations that help the pantries also are experiencing problems stemming from the economy. The St. Louis Area Foodbank supplies food to St. Louis pantries to supplement the donations they receive.
"People are strapped," said Lenora Young, director of product sourcing at the Foodbank. "They don't have as much disposable income."
Another recent challenge is the cost of food transportation. Young thinks this summer will be especially challenging.
However, Young said the Food Bank has moved to a larger facility where it can store more food. They can more aggressively seek contributions from businesses and churches knowing they will be able to store the food.
Meanwhile, some larger food pantries remain optimistic they can handle the problems.
The Rev. Jerry Morales and Rich Oplum work at Hosea House, a food pantry of Guardian Angel, 2635 Gravois Ave. The economic downturn has brought 50 to 70 more families to their door each month, but unlike smaller pantries, Hosea House gets help. It receives money from the Emergency Food and Shelter Program of the federal government to supplement their donations.
The federal funding is distributed by a local board which food pantries apply for, and is allocated based on numerous factors, including the number of people the pantry serves. Feed My People also received $10,000 from this program last year.
"We are fortunate to have the ability to purchase some things because of some government funding," Morales said. "I would not say we would be in danger, as far as we could tell, of running out of food to help people.
"We're big enough and we have enough support. However, smaller pantries will run into that problem."
It is too soon to say whether donations to Hosea House will be affected by the economy, Oplum said. Donations have dwindled in recent months, including a disappointing return at a food drive last month. Oplum said more time is needed to determine if the economy was the cause of the lack of food donations.
"It's hard to tell if that's just because they didn't promote it, or if it was the cost of the food," Oplum said.
Several food drives are planned this summer to help the food pantries. The Freedom From Hunger food drive takes place throughout July. On July 25th, KEZK will play 24 hours of Christmas music in a promotion to raise money for the St. Louis Area Foodbank.
