Hunger is taking its toll
By JASMINE LINABARY
Wood River Journal
More and more people are going hungry in Blaine County as food and gas prices skyrocket and local agencies are having a hard time keeping up.
Increased needs in the county have driven the Hunger Coalition, a nonprofit agency based in Hailey, to seek a location for a local food bank, said coalition executive director Jeanne Liston.
Currently, the Hunger Coalition distributes food vouchers and an estimated 1,000 pounds of food each week to agencies such as St. Luke's Center for Community Health to hand out, but now those agencies are experiencing strains as well.
The Hunger Coalition has been looking for someone willing to donate space or offer a location at a reduced rate for the food bank.
However, a location is not the only need the Hunger Coalition has. The coalition is struggling to keep its current food supply stocked, Liston said. Food that used to last the organization a month now lasts about a week.
While the coalition has performed extra food drives and tried to increase awareness, the response is still not enough to cover the needs in the community, Liston said.
“One of the biggest challenges is spreading awareness that hunger does exist in the county where there is so much abundance,” Liston said. “And unfortunately, it's growing daily.”
Though updated data about poverty rates in Blaine County is not available, a Job Gap Study in 2007 showed a single parent with two children in the county must make $24.79 an hour, or $51,042 a year, to meet the basic needs of the family. That amount continues to increase.
Local food distribution suggests need in the county is climbing exponentially. In 2007, the Hunger Coalition tripled the amount of food they gave out. Now, halfway through 2008, the coalition has delivered nearly as many pounds of food and served as many meals as they did through their programs last year.
Seasonal work and lack of employment are thought to contribute to the need in the county, said Gay Miremont of St. Luke's Center for Community Health.
“Need in this community and across the nation has skyrocketed,” Liston said. “I think people who hadn't faced these challenges before now are having to choose between paying rent and buying food.”
Cash donations provide the most resources to the coalition, as they are able to stretch donors' dollars farther with the coalition's discounts at places like Albertsons, Liston said.
To help offset some of the need, the Hunger Coalition teamed up last weekend for the first time with The Idaho Foodbank and the Freedom Resource Center to bring a semi-truck packed with food including produce and meats to give out in outside St. Charles Catholic Church.
The Hunger Coalition gave out 20,000 pounds of food June 28 in the mobile food pantry, serving 138 families and more than 576 people.
Agencies the coalition distributes to have seen increased demand as well.
At St. Luke's Center for Community Health, one of the frontline distributors of the Hunger Coalition's food, the amount of food they gave out has doubled in the past year, Miremont said.
While Hunger Coalition volunteers store and shelve the food, the increased need has strained the center, which also performs other tasks such as community education.
“Because of the increased number coming in for food, it makes it a little harder to get everything done the way it's supposed to be done,” Miremont said.
The growing need is not just specific to Blaine County. Liston also sits on a statewide hunger relief task force and says more people are seeking emergency food assistance across the state.
The Idaho Foodbank, which works with nearly 200 feeding sites across the state, has seen the impacts of rising fuel and food costs.
“Fuel prices are making a very serious dent in our ability to bring in food,” said Roger Simon, president and CEO of The Idaho Foodbank. “We've had to take a much more serious look at how far across the country we can send trucks to bring in food.”
Simon described the current situation as a “perfect storm” with an increase in demand at the same time as increases in costs and decreases in availability of food.
The Idaho Foodbank had about a 20 percent increase in the food it distributed last year, delivering 500 million pounds of food.
The foodbank also ended the year with about 300,000 pounds less food in inventory than years prior - roughly half a month's food distribution.
Record prices mean manufactures have less food available for donation, Simon said. Prices have increased approximately 5 percent since last year and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects food prices could increase another 5.5 percent in 2008.
“When the question comes as to what keeps you up at night, this is a very serious one: how do we focus on our mission when resources are becoming more and more limited?” Simon said. “We have a responsibility to do everything within our power to increase the supply of food for ourselves or the frontline agencies.”
To help offset projected costs, The Idaho Foodbank increased its purchase budget to $900,000 this year, nearly double the previous year's budget.
The Idaho Foodbank assists agencies throughout the state by offering vehicles, freezers and food stock. Trucks from The Idaho Foodbank travel thousands of miles each week to replenish local agencies in all but the five northern counties of Idaho, which an agency in Spokane covers through an agreement with the foodbank, Simon said.
“When fuel costs are so high, not only families are being affected but the people trying to serve them are being affected,” Simon said. “If we are going to try to make a difference in the community, we need to look toward local resources and what I can do as an individual.”
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