Even with the economy said to be on the road to recovery, a few new families a month visit the Lowell Food Pantry looking for help.
"There's an awful lot of new people coming in that's never been in before," said Judy Gilham, co-director of the Lowell Food Pantry & Thrift Shop. "We haven't yet seen (an improvement). We've still got quite a few for the size of our village."
Though Gilham didn't have exact figures available, she said the pantry is still serving about 15 percent to 20 percent more people this year than it normally would in a regular year.
Earlier this year, a new national survey came out linking the recent economic downturn with the need for emergency food assistance.
The Feeding America 2010 survey does not include data for individual counties. Incorrect information concerning the number of Washington County households that received
assistance was provided to The Marietta Times and appeared in the Feb. 4 edition, but Marilyn Sloan, food bank manager with Hocking-Athens-Perry Southeast Ohio Food Bank, Community Action, said Wednesday that the need is still real.
Sloan said about 15,504 Washington County households used some form of food assistance, though that number does include some duplication because of the way figures are kept. One person could receive help from a single food pantry multiple times and yet each trip is counted as a household served, Sloan said. And that's not counting trips made to other locations, such as a senior food program, for food assistance.
Realistically, she said, about 5,135 households in the county used food service in 2009.
"When the state looks at these (figures), they divide it into thirds to make sure there are no people being double counted," she said.
U.S. Census Bureau estimates indicate there are 25,184 occupied housing units in the county.
What's alarming, Sloan said, is the need in areas of the county like Lower Salem and Beverly-Waterford.
"They are still seeing at least two to three new families a month and that's on top of the others," she said. "With the economy the way it is and new people showing up... I think that's where we're seeing an increase."
Still, Sloan said Washington County is a little more stable than the surrounding counties. Officials with the Beverly-Waterford and Lower Salem food pantries were not available Wednesday.
At food pantries like the one in Lowell, food assistance typically consists of a five- to seven-day supply of food, including cereal, noodles, Hamburger Helper and canned fruits and vegetables.
To qualify for food assistance, Sloan said, a family of two would have had to be within 200 percent of the poverty guidelines. That means a family of two could make $1,011 a month and qualify for help through the food bank and pantry network.
