Thursday, May 15, 2008

Food pantries seeking donations

By Kim Dunne
Evening Telegram
Thu May 15, 2008, 08:00 AM EDT

Herkimer, N.Y. -

Food pantries across the area are in desperate need of help.

“If we keep going at the rate we’re going now we are probably going to run out of food by the middle of next month,” said Tony DeLuca with the Little Falls Area Food Pantry.

DeLuca says the pantry has seen a dramatic rise in service numbers to local families over the past several months and as a result its inventories and resources have hit an all time low. In 2007 the pantry provided 1,568 families with 76,280 meals. This was up nearly 15 percent over the 2006 service numbers, and a 160 percent increase over 2004. Through April 2008 the pantry has provided over 23,700 meals to nearly 550 households. That is an average of nearly 6,000 meals per month. DeLuca says the pantry is on pace to face a year of record-breaking requests for services.

“Our problem is that our resources are as low as they’ve ever been money wise and we don’t have the ability to buy food from the Central New York Food Bank,” DeLuca said. “We are trying to meet the ever-increasing demand for help.”

DeLuca says it’s mainly a cause of the increasing costs of food and gas and other day-to-day necessities.

The rising cost of food also affects the pantry as it has to cut back on some essential food basics such as eggs and milk.

“We have to start limiting the variety of things we give away, then we start limiting the volume we can give away and then you basically cut back and give away what you have,” DeLuca said.

“Even the simple items that are not necessities, we just don’t buy it anymore. We try to eliminate the non-essentials, but the basic stuff you have to keep here.” “We will give until we don’t have any more to give,” DeLuca added. “If the pantry shelves are empty we can’t distribute what we don’t have.”

The Herkimer/Mohawk Interfaith Food Pantry has been remaining steady as far as families it assists each month. For the month of April the pantry helped 136 households which included 103 children, 239 adults, 22 elderly and 364 individuals for a total of 5,460 meals.

“That’s about steady for us with some months having a few more and some months having a few less,” said Bill Paslak, coordinator for the pantry.

Katharine Loomis with the Central New York Food Bank has said that’s about the trend, some pantries have seen a significant increase in services, while others have not.

“We have a lot of new faces at our pantries,” Loomis said. “It’s not the same people we’ve seen. It’s working families where one or both parents are working and making minimum wage or a little bit above it and with the cost of fuel and groceries, they’re just not making ends meet anymore.”

Loomis said the Food Bank is being proactive about helping pantries that are in need.

“We saw this coming and we are providing some additional supplemental shipments to our food pantries in all 11 counties,” Loomis said.

The Food Bank has distributed about 400,000 extra meals since January, Loomis said.

“We are seeing such an increase in rice, wheat, meat, eggs and dairy products it’s so much tougher for people who are on food stamps,” Loomis said. “They are getting the same amount they’ve always gotten but the dollar goes a lot less far now.”

For more information visit www.foodbankcny.org or call 437-1899.

To donate to the Little Falls Food Pantry, tax deductible contributions may be sent to Little Falls Area Food Pantry c/o Little Falls Family YMCA, 15 Jackson St., Little Falls, N.Y. 13365 or call 823-1793.

For more information on how to donate to the Herkimer/Mohawk Interfaith Food Pantry call 717-0048.