Feeding a needArea food pantries hungry for donations as they serve more people
Monday, November 26, 2007
BY JANE C. PARIKH
jparikh@kalamazoogazette.com
388-8558
BY JANE C. PARIKH
jparikh@kalamazoogazette.com
388-8558
Directors of area food banks and pantries said they are doing what they can to keep up with an increasing demand for food, much of it from individuals who never thought they would find themselves accepting free bags of groceries.
``The perception is shifting some so that we're more realistic about the fact that it is people who are working, who are meeting their welfare obligations, but continue to struggle,'' said Anne Wend Lipsey, executive director of Kalamazoo-based Loaves & Fishes Food Bank.
Historically, she said, summer is the busiest time for Loaves & Fishes. This is in part because children who receive free or reduced breakfast and lunch don't have that option during the summer break.
Wend Lipsey said 8,800 individuals received food from July to September this year. That amounts to 41,500 individual days of food, compared to 7,500 individuals and 34,000 days of food given out during the same time period in 2006.
Traditionally, surges occur around the holidays, but donations of food and personal-care items are needed year-round, Wend Lipsey said. Loaves & Fishes receives stock from the South Central food bank for distribution to about 23 sites, including 10 of the busiest urban areas in and around Kalamazoo.
``We don't have reserves on hand, and January is coming,'' Wend Lipsey said.
Volunteer workers at Loaves & Fishes earlier this month sorted and reboxed food collected by state employees, hospital workers and Sam's Club employees during the Michigan Harvest Gathering.
Wend Lipsey said employees at Bronson Methodist Hospital collected 52,000 pounds of food, which represents a two-week inventory for Loaves & Fishes. That was followed on Nov. 12 by a donation of $6,700 from Panera Bread Co.'s Kalamazoo location, near the corner of Drake Road and West Main Street.
``It's this ongoing support from the community that makes a difference for us,'' Wend Lipsey said. ``For us, it's all about the partnerships.''
Boxes of cereal from Kraft Foods Post division in Battle Creek that may not have the correct outside packaging for distribution to retailers or Kellogg's products with tops that don't seal properly are the kind of donations received because of the collaborations between the South Central food bank and corporate donors, Randels said.
Wend Lipsey said while this is the time of year when people think about helping others, lack of food is an ongoing issue that goes well beyond the holidays for a growing number of people in the community.
``What we're seeing now is that people are out of food two-and-a-half weeks into their (four-week) food-stamp allotment,'' Wend Lipsey said. ``Add in enormously high gasoline prices and high housing costs, and people are really struggling.''
Randels said there are practical and economic benefits to making sure people in need have access to free food.
``This enables them to juggle around limited resources in their household and pay emergency dental or medical bills or pay for prescriptions or their house rent,'' Randels said.
Loaves & Fishes used to provide two days worth of food to get people through a time period when their food stamps ran out before they became eligible for another allotment. They have had to increase that allotment to see people through.
The food bank, located in the Fort Custer Industrial Park, distributes food to 275 charities in Barry, Branch, Calhoun, Hillsdale, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Lenawee and St. Joseph counties. America's Second Harvest, made up of major corporations, such as the Kellogg Co., and individual donors provide the food and personal-care items temporarily stored on shelves inside the 30,000-square-foot headquarters.
``We've gotten a nice surge of food donations in the last couple of weeks,'' Randels said. ``I think people are realizing that things are really tight in Michigan and locally.''