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America's Food Banks Are Hungry For Support

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 27, 2008

The New Poor - many who were members of the Middle Class only a few months ago - are putting an unprecedented strain on the nation's food banks. And it isn't just a worry on Thanksgiving Day.

Lost jobs and high food prices have made food insecurity a national problem.

This is no Great Depression. We don't have cardboard-shack Hoovervilles. We can be thankful communities and government have knit together a safety net since those dismal times.

But we still have soup lines. And this year, they are long.

The nation's food banks have been pummeled by a rising demand for food and a decline in charitable giving. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that even significant contributions from corporate America are still not enough to address what has become a run on the nation's food banks.

Some of the shortages of food supplies are an unintended consequence of more efficient food manufacturing and distribution systems. For decades, the nation's food manufacturers have been big suppliers to food banks, providing them with unsold commodities, dented and damaged cans and boxes of food and perishables approaching their "sell-by date." But there is not as much excess food these days.

Corporate America, to a large degree, has stepped up to help.

Wal-Mart recently donated $2.5 million to help food banks and also has been providing more fresh meat and dairy items. The Ford Motor Co. and Newman's Own - the gourmet food company founded by the late Hollywood legend Paul Newman - upped their donation of food and the trucks needed to deliver it to rural communities. The eight-year partnership has provided more than 100 million pounds of food.

Locally, retailers such as Publix, Sweetbay and Panera restaurants assist local churches, school and community groups in getting sustenance to the needy. Yet they are rowing against a strong tide.

In Tampa, Metropolitan Ministries says demand for its food services is up 20 percent while donations are off by 20 percent, creating a huge gap in the charity's ability to meet the needs of an estimated 24,000 families that will seek food assistance between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The Salvation Army started its annual holiday bell-ringing campaign weeks earlier than normal in anticipation of heightened demand.

This month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported than in 2007, nearly 36 million adults and children go hungry at some point each year. That's one in eight Americans.

It's been almost 80 years since the Great Depression, when millions went hungry in a nation of abundance. But while much progress has been made, hunger remains a national challenge.

True, the holiday canned food drive has become almost a ubiquitous sign of the season - something as easy to ignore as a Muzak rendition of "Jingle Bells." Sure, you will turn your television news on tonight and see footage of the poor getting their Thanksgiving dinner at a local soup kitchen - you know that happens every year.

But too many of us count on someone else to make the contributions, and this year there isn't enough to go around.

So don't just walk by the food share barrel or drop box. Stop, and make a contribution.

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