Demand for food pantries climbs
February 3, 2010
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February 3, 2010
For most of her 60 years, Shari Cline would have described herself this way: wife, mother, hard worker.
But yesterday, as she pushed a cart up the short aisles of a suburban food pantry, Cline was only too aware that she has joined another, less-welcome club.
"The situationally poor," she said. "I think that's what they call us."
Anti-hunger groups say she's right, and they have compiled both nationwide and local surveys that show the recession helping to drive millions of Americans -- about one in eight -- to pantries or other emergency food sources.
The Mid-Ohio Foodbank, which serves a 20-county area in central and eastern Ohio, said that more than 248,000 people received food last year, 28 percent more than in 2005, the last time a similar survey was taken.
"Is generational poverty growing? Yes. But the spike really is situational, where something happens that turns people's lives upside down," said Scott Marier, executive director of the Westerville Area Resource Ministry, which operates the pantry where Cline was picking up food.
"There's just more month than there is money," he said.
The reports from Mid-Ohio and Feeding America, the nation's largest food-bank network, both show record demand for food. They also seem to reflect a surge in new faces.
"It's reached the 'burbs," said Matt Habash, president of the Mid-Ohio Foodbank. "A lot of these are people who had been donating in the past."
The Mid-Ohio report found that 18 percent of those seeking food had been managers or professionals. In the last survey, four years ago, about 9 percent said they had held those jobs.
About 5 percent of clients have a college degree; only 5 percent were homeless.
"A lot of people are a paycheck away from this," Cline said. "Actually, I wasn't; I budgeted enough to be able to make it for six months. It ran out."
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