In three years as manager of the Salvation Army service unit on East State Street, Madge Stewart has difficulty remembering a time when its food pantry shelves were full.
She and her pantry coordinator rely on the commitment of local donors. They feel lucky when the regional food bank fills one order of food for the pantry each month.
They are not alone.
Hit by the same economic factors that drive clients to their doors, emergency food providers throughout the state are hungry for donations.
Thanks largely to increasing food and fuel prices, food banks and pantries are serving longer client lists while costs diminish their ability to purchase and distribute supplies.
What I'm hearing is that shelves at many of the state's food banks
but particularly those outside of the major metropolitan areas G? are empty or very close to empty said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks.
The cause, she said, is a perfect storm of snowballing economic factors, including energy costs.
The price index for fuel oil in March increased nearly 50 percent from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics.
Locally, that generates a three-prong effect. Producers face higher transportation costs that translate to higher food prices. Families must choose whether to spend their limited budgets on fuel or on food, often the more flexible expenditure. And the food providers that become a last resort can purchase fewer supplies on the same budget but pay more to deliver that food.
The Second Harvest Foodbank of Southeastern Ohio, which has one of the largest coverage areas and smallest budgets among Ohio's 12 Second Harvest food banks, spent one-third of its annual $24,000 fuel budget in the first two months of the year, Hamler-Fugitt said.- Hamler-Fugitt said.
Back at the Salvation Army, coordinator Bonnie Tenney worries about how the pantry's function as an emergency food provider has changed.
At one point, the cereal, peanut butter and canned vegetables were short-term aid for families in emergency situations, such as house fires. What was supposed to be the bare minimum now functions as a last resort for families that run out of grocery money halfway through the month.
The story repeats at food pantries across the region. Lisa Roberts runs two Friends and Neighbors distribution sites in Lottridge and Racine, both southeast of Athens. The regional food bank's inventory in the past few months is the lowest she's seen in a decade. -
Roberts said. But from my position
that breaks my heart.-
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