As the overall economy wrestles with rising grocery and fuel prices, local families are seeking help to put food on their tables and in their children's mouths.
"We're having more people to come for food, and our donations are down. It's a little bit rough right now," said Linda Allen, director of the Western Washington County Food Pantry at Vincent.
It isn't a formula that's going to work out for long.
"Our food pantries are struggling right now," said Scott Britton, director of the Marietta Community Food Pantry. "Food shortages are about the same. This hasn't improved."
Because of rising costs, food banks across Ohio must fill a gap of 26 million pounds of food to continue feeding the poor and working poor, according to a recent analysis by the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Food Banks.
Food inflation is at a 17-year high, and that's affecting families as well as food banks.
Last week, Britton and other food bank managers met with their supplier, Second Harvest in Logan, to discuss current shortages and projections for the foreseeable future.
There was little good news to be shared. In fact, Britton said 20 to 25 food banks in the southeast Ohio region have closed because a drop in donations, less food from the U.S. Department of Agriculture commodities program and increasing numbers of people who need food.
The Vincent pantry, which serves Warren, Barlow, Decatur, Dunham, Fairfield, Palmer and Wesley townships, is one of 10 food pantries in Washington County. Allen said although the pantry is "struggling," it is not in danger of closing.
"We'll make it through this summer, but it's a little bit hard," she said. "If we didn't have our thrift store to help out, we wouldn't be able to make it."
Few pantries have a thrift store tied in to provide additional funding.
The Marietta pantry purchases food at a greatly reduced price from America's Second Harvest. As prices have risen, the amount of food that can be bought has declined.
In 2002, the Marietta pantry purchased 23,798 pounds of food from Second Harvest, Britton said. In 2007, 4,311 pounds of food were received. So far this year, 3,545 pounds have been received. That does not include local donations.
"The large number of disasters (fires, floods, hurricanes) since 2002 has certainly reduced the amount of food available from the Food Bank," Britton said. "Also, food companies have changed how they donate and how much they donate."
Volunteer groups, like Washington County Harvest of Hope, are helping local pantries through lean times with rescued or gleaned food, Britton said.
Harvest of Hope will receive proceeds from Broughton's Ice Cream Social July 20.
"If it weren't for these groups, our local pantries would be struggling even more," he said.
In 2004, 4,640 local households received services, while only 3,337 households were served by the pantry in 2007.
However, the numbers of households and individuals served have stayed relatively steady, considering the pantry served a large number of local flood victims in 2004 and the New Matamoras Food Pantry opened in November 2006, taking over service of that area from Community Food Pantry, Britton said.
"Our numbers for 2008 are running slightly under last year," he said. "Both February and May saw a slight decrease in clients. Weather may have been the reason in February, when we had to close the pantry, and in May, I expect some of it might be due to the (federal) stimulus tax refunds that came about that time."
Linda Strahler has been a volunteer at the Community Food Pantry for more than 10 years. On Monday she brought in summer squash and zucchini from her Reno garden.
"It would be wonderful if people would just bring extra vegetables from their gardens this summer to give to people who get food from the pantry," she said. "I'm a member of the (River City) Farmers Market, and I've been encouraging them to bring whatever they have extra too."
The Harvest of Hope's community garden in old city parkland behind Food 4 Less is expected to provide fresh home-grown vegetables for the pantry later this summer.
The Associated Press contributed.
