Food Pantries Struggling With Shortages - reporting increased demand and drop in donations

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.newstrib.com/display.asp?Article=49D97D8263A9117F0B0F1DE7AE90967931189F99C26C5DE5

Demand is being driven up by rising costs of food, housing, utilities, health care and gasoline, while food manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers are finding they have less surplus food to donate and government help has decreased, according to Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks.

"I've been doing this for 20 years, and I can't believe how much worse it gets month after month," she said.

(** snip **)


"We have food banks in virtually every city in the country, and what we are hearing is that they are all facing severe shortages with demand so high," Ross Fraser, a spokesman for America's Second Harvest — The Nation's Food Bank Network, the nation's largest hunger relief group, said Friday. "One of our food banks in Florida said demand is up 35 percent over this time last year."



Interesting:Government reports no change in food pantry use. The organization says big increase.

http://www.ourmidland.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19038368&BRD=2289&PAG=461&dept_id=472542&rfi=6
The U.S. Department of Agricultures annual hunger survey released Wednesday showed that more than 35.5 million people in the United States were hungry in 2006. While that number was about the same as the previous year, heads of food banks and pantries say many more people are seeking their assistance.

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Poor People Deserve It

People who are unable to bundle contributions and donate to build presidential libraries get just what they deserve.

[dweller]

2. 'hey man, where ya going with that food?'

http://ap.google.com/media/ALeqM5hBzqDqTRH0qVLv63snm4PXMPrQJg?size=m


dp

[flashl]

3. Some Americans Lack Food, but USDA Won't Call Them Hungry. n/t