Food banks feeling impact from recession

With the price of gas going up almost daily and the economy showing little improvement, food banks in the area have been hit hard with donations and the price of gas to be able to deliver food.

Fredi Pargeter, an organizer at the Thompson Falls Community Harvest Food Bank, said that they’re particularly tight in the area of donations. “We don’t get a lot of donations, but we have been buying a lot from the Montana Food Bank Network and they have a lot of items that are very reasonably priced and occasionally some things that are free.” The food bank also buys food from Harvest Foods.

While Pargeter said that the Thompson Falls Community Harvest Food Bank isn’t really suffering, she has seen an increase in the amount of food given out and how many families they serve each week.

“Last week we gave out more than a ton of food, and usually we would just give that out that much in a month’s time, not in a week’s,” Pargeter said. The Thompson Falls Community Food Bank is open two days a week and on average maybe assisted two or three families a week, but now they’re seeing upwards of 10 families per week. “We’ve really seen an increase within the last three months,” Pargeter said.

She said that it is hard to find a job in this area to begin with, let alone with the economy in the current state it is in. “People are hungry because they are filling up their gas tanks instead of their tummies,” she said.

Pargeter said there is still a section of the community that they really want to help, but who don’t go to the food bank for assistance. “We really want to reach the elderly people in the area, but there is a pride factor and it is hard for them to ask for help,” she said. To help with that Pargeter said that they do take a basket out from time to time to those who really need food but for whatever reason don’t make it out to the food bank for help.

Pargeter said a section of the population that they do see a lot of are veterans. She said they get a lot of veterans who come in who really need help, because they have a minimal income and a lot of the time are injured.

“We help anyone who comes in,” Pargeter said. In order to receive assistance from the Thompson Falls Food Bank a form of identification must be shown, but other than that anyone can get food. “We do have to ask how much they make,” Pargeter said. “But we take their word on it, we don’t have to have them prove it in any way.”

Pargeter said they would really like donations because they are really short of donations. “We usually get three or four phone calls, but we’ll take anything, especially now that we’re in such a way.” She said things tend to pick up a little bit in the summer, as far as donations go, because people are harvesting crops, and they encourage anyone who can to donate any type of food to the food bank.

“We have seen a lot more people who need our assistance, and we could really use some more donations,” she said.

Peggy Grimes, of the Montana Food Bank Network (MFBN), said that there are more clients who are in need of food and unfortunately there are not enough resources for that need. She said that at the local level they have seen pantries cutting back on the amount of food they are able to give out to people, because they do not have the resources. “We’ve seen local pantries use locally donated dollars to purchase food, and that money is taken out of operation costs to be able to keep the lights on and the doors open,” she said.

Grimes also said that there is a whole new dimension to the MFBN that they haven’t seen before, with people who never would’ve thought about going to a food bank for food, but who now need the extra little bit of help to get by. This is due in part to the down turn of the economy, the price of gas, the increased cost of food, as well as with the rental housing market. With the housing market in the shape it is in, more people are deciding to rent, but the cost of rental housing is increasing. She said that in the areas where employment is not prevailing, more and more people are needing to rely more on the MFBN.

“About this time last year we started a mobile pantry program where we would fill up a truck and go to a community and give out food,” Grimes said. “We’ve started seeing people who are coming out for food who make too much money to bee on food stamps and don’t want to go too a food pantry because they feel they make too much money, but they need a little extra boost to help them get by. This is a whole new dynamic, because we’re seeing people at those mobile pantries that actual food pantries aren’t even seeing.”

In order to be eligible for food stamps you must be at no more than 135 percent of the poverty level, with the poverty level being making no more than $1.383 a month for a family of three.

The MFBN is based out of Missoula and services the whole state with food. Grimes said she has been with the MFBN for 15 years and this is the first time in her history there that they’ve had to contract out for additional food, and have had to use more trucks to get food to the areas that they deliver. The MFBN has, in some cases, brought two full semi-trucks to various locations, where previously only one would’ve been needed to deliver food. “We’re moving a lot of food through our warehouse,” Grimes said.

Grimes said that in the first quarter of this year the MFBN has delivered about 13 percent more food than last year.

She said that the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which came through the Farm Bill or the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, says that people are eligible for food up to 150 percent of the poverty level, or $31,800 or less a year for a family of four. Anyone with that qualifies for commodity food. However, Grimes said that there are those people who are above 150 percent of the poverty level, and may really need the food, but pantries need to make those decisions. “It is really hard to do, but with the situation as it is, local pantries have to decide whether or not to help these people who may really need it, or save the food for a family who is below 150 percent of the poverty level,” Grimes said.

Grimes also agreed with Pargeter that there is a pride factor in going to a food bank for help and that it is something they’ve seen all across the state. “More and more people who never had to grace the doors of a food pantry are having to come in, and they feel so bad that they’re in that situation,” she said. “They try to sneak in the door, so no one sees them, and the people who are running the pantries know that they need the food, but they don’t have the resources to take the food to those who need them.”

She said the elderly population is very, very hard to reach, because many went through the depression and they feel that there are people out there, especially families, who need the food more than they do.

Unfortunately there is only so much that the MFBN can do, since much of the problems are out of their control with rising gas and food prices, that’s why Grimes said it is really time for the government to step up and help out. Grimes said that, with things the way they are now, the state of Montana is going to have to step up and look to providing food for its citizens, and that the MFBN is going to make their case to the upcoming legislature about the government stepping up to help out. “We can’t rely solely on the nonprofit sector,” Grimes said. “If it weren’t for individual donors, we wouldn’t be able to make it.”

She said that pantries are having to be much more sacrificial in what they’re doing and more particular in the types of food they’re purchasing, such as canned fruit. Grimes said, canned fruit was always something they used to provide for people in need, but it has gotten much too expensive, so the MFBN is looking around the country to see about bringing in fresh fruit. She said they use some of the money they get to purchase food that the various food banks might not be getting locally.

The MFBN does a survey every other year called the Hungry in Montana Survey. In 2006 14.4 percent of the population was at 100 percent of the poverty level or below, which equates to about 125,000 to 128,000 people. The survey hasn’t been finished for this year, but Grimes said she believes the percent of population in the poverty level is around 14.1. She said Montana is 11th in the nation for the most people working two or more jobs and 44th in the nation for poverty level, with only six other states who have a poverty level greater than Montana’s.

Grimes said they do get some money from the state of Montana to help purchase food, but it is not nearly enough and gets depleted pretty quickly. The MFBN mostly relies on food donations and individual monetary donations as well. “Right now all we can do is hold on and really hope and pray for better days,” she said. “Unfortunately at this point it is out of our hands, with MFBN our job is looking ahead for the next six months to a year and try to get ahead of the floodwaters and try to make sure that we have enough food.”

Grimes said that as winter nears and home heating prices going way up she can’t see things getting any better in the next six months to a year.

“We’ve got a lot going on out there, not only with the increase of fuel and the increase cost of food and it is getting difficult for the pantry to provide to people,” she said. “We really need some help from the government to be able to help sustain ourselves.”