Food donations hit low point for area relief pantries
By Tom AdamsEUGENE, Ore. - Empty shelves at food banks are cause for concern for managers at Food For Lane County as fall arrives. Food pantry managers say early fall is the time donations hit the low point, but even they haven't seen donations dip this far down. "All these gaps, and you see that's not a big pallet. That's one layer left on a pallet," said Ron Detwiler, operations manager at Food For Lane county. "It's the first year in my history with the food bank that we've not seen an increase in the pounds coming into the food bank." Two years ago, the agency distributed about 7 million pounds of food to hungry residents. In the fiscal year ending this past June, the number nosedived to 6 million pounds. Client numbers stayed fairly level, about 80,000. So why the downturn? Transportation costs have skyrocketed. "USDA, the government commodities, that's another area," said Detwiler. Past donations from national companies like Nabisco (for crackers and the like) have been reduced to crumbs. But Food For Lane County is not alone. At the food pantry on Highway 99 by Saint Vincent De Paul, the situation is really stark. Empty shelves where there should be macaroni and cheese and soup products. In the dairy case, it's flat out empty. Volunteers here say it shouldn't be that way. "Tuna is low. We're low on peanut butter, stews and chilies and soups," said Roxann O'Brien, Social Services Program Manager for SVDP. On top of that, this summer has seen a 20 percent jump in demand for food boxes. "We send the client away without enough food to sustain them for the week," O'Brien said, "so that's a big problem." Back at the main warehouse, a stack of empty boxes await much needed use. "There's nothing in these boxes; they're empty. That's in anticipation of the holiday season,"Detwiler said. Detwiler likes to call the stack "boxes of hope." "You can't let it get you down," he said, "you really can't." Detwiler said the fall food drives this year will be extra critical for the agency. |
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