People Are Going Hungry Right Here!

Each of those days, truckloads of food from a number of different sources pull
up to food banks all around the country to unload what food they can get. This
food might be a donation from a food source, or purchased food with money donated
from corporate and government grants and individual donors like you. And while
food banks strive to offer good, nutritious food, often these food donations
may contain items such as high-fat salad dressings, sugar filled sodas, and
high sugar cereals as the better foods. Another sad statement of fact is that
demand is still rising for these services, and donations are not keeping up.
And, in the last 10 years, the government has continued to shift more and more
of the job of feeding the poor, unemployed, elderly, disabled, and homeless
onto local charities such as Food Banks. This puts a growing demand for money
on food banks, as they now must buy up to 50% of the food they distribute.

Our local food bank, where I am the President of the Board of Directors, and
a board member and volunteer for over 7 years, is the Alameda County Community
Food Bank. One of over 200 food banks nation wide, we serve over 120,000 people
a month, and our demand is also rising while the number of food donations is
falling. 48% of the people we serve are children! Another 37% are working families
who cannot make ends meet. And another large percentage is homebound elderly.
Only 13% of our clients are actually the homeless you see on the street. And
the government is not helping either. In many states, and until recently in
California, a 13 to 15 page application, in addition to multiple face-to-face
meetings were required to apply for just a few dollars a week in food stamps.
Many who work could not make the mid-day meeting times, so were denied the food
stamps for which they were otherwise eligible, putting an even more strain on
the food bank’s resources. Our food donations are down over 23% while
the number of phone calls to our hunger hotline are up over 50%,

Studies continue to show a downward spiral on supplies of food, while at the
same time, in a down economy with the highest rate of unemployment seen in decades,
the demand and need for supplemental food are growing at a staggering pace.
According to studies, for the 20 years proceeding 1997, one of ever 4 Americans
at some point received food stamps! Similar numbers relied on charitable organizations
like soup kitchens and food pantries, which obtain much of the food through
food banks. Since 1997, and especially since the dot-com bubble burst, these
numbers are even worse. Right now, one in eight people in this country live
at or below the poverty level and faces hunger each day. And as more and more
jobs move out of the country, this number is going to grow.

We use to get “tons” of food donations from a good number of corporations
when they made too much (overruns), had an error in the production (bad printing,
too much salt, etc,), or discontinued or failed products. And food banks would
often trade these donations with each other creating a balance of foods all.
But recently, things have changed. First, new quality controls have reduced
significantly the number of production errors resulting in lower costs to consumers
and higher profits to investors, but less food for food banks. Second, new,
“just in time” manufacturing has reduced overruns. And lastly, a
new series of “discount outlet food stores” now get just about everything
else. What little is left comes to the food banks, but it is not much.

I could go into much more detail about the aging population, the shrinking number
of jobs, and the increase in unemployment. I could go into detail about the
poor finding work and the ever-increasing numbers of people falling into the
poverty level. I could talk about the increased number of jobs moving off shore
and the increase in government spending on war and space, but decreased spending
on social services. But we ALL know these stories. In fact, from the Second
Harvest web site (a national organization of food banks) from a woman in Ohio:

"I have two children of my own, and my husband and I both work and
still find it hard to make ends meet. We also have had to choose between the
bills and food. This a very important issue in our country and needs to be addressed…
Older people should not have to choose between food or medicine or paying their
bills.”