STOCKTON, Calif., May 27, 2008
Nation's Food Banks On Brink Of Crisis
Economy Driving New, "Nontraditional" Clientele Into Lines; Gas, Food Prices Sapping Resources
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A man and a woman look for bread at the Emergency Food Bank in Stockton, Calif., Wednesday, May 7, 2008. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
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Volunteers, at left, distribute food at the Emergency Food Bank in Stockton, Calif., Wednesday, May 7, 2008. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
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Like nearly a third of the first 50 customers to arrive at the Emergency Food Bank of Stockton that morning, Hoffman was new to the pantry. But since she lost her sales job at a local newspaper in December, she has not found work in Stockton, which has the highest foreclosure rate in the country and a hurting job market.
"I'm down on my luck," Hoffman said, squeezing and sniffing the bread. "And food is going through the roof. I need help."
Hoffman, 55, is one of the growing number of "nontraditional" food pantry clients across the country. They include more formerly independent senior citizens, more people who own houses and more people who used to call themselves "middle-class" - those who are not used to fretting over the price of milk.
"We're getting calls all the time from people who want to know how to get here," said Kristine Gibson, community outreach manager at the Stockton food pantry. "And when I ask where they live, they give an address of a nice neighborhood, one where you or I would want to live."
April saw the biggest jump in food prices in 18 years, according to the Labor Department. At the same time, workers' average weekly earnings, adjusted for inflation, dropped for the seventh straight month.
To meet growing demand, America's Second Harvest-The Nation's Food Bank Network, pressed lawmakers for the past year to increase the annual level of funding for The Emergency Food Assistance Program, commonly know as TEFAP, from $140 million to $250 million annually.
A survey it conducted of 180 food banks in late April and early May found that 99 percent have seen an increase in the number of clients served within the last year. The increase is estimated at 15 percent to 20 percent, though many food banks reported increases as high as 40 percent.
The money was included in the Farm Bill recently approved by Congress, but won't be available until the next fiscal year, which starts in October.
"The way it's going, we're going to have a food disaster pretty soon," said Phyllis Legg, interim executive director of the Merced Food Bank, which serves 43 food pantries throughout foreclosure-ravaged Merced County.
Food banks across the country are in similar straits: While demand is up, supplies and donations are down. The food banks, like their customers, also are suffering from high gas prices and struggling with the impact of rising food prices on their operations. Some have had to cut back on how much food they give, or how often.
"If gas keeps going up, it's going to be catastrophic in every possible way," said Ross Fraser, a spokesman for America's Second Harvest.
Food banks sometimes have to move food 150 miles to a food pantry, he said.
"You're going to get to the point where they are going to have to decide whether it's cheaper to just give a food pantry a check," he said. "The price of gasoline is going to drive the price of everything else."
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America's Second Harvest
Prices at the pump are at record highs, averaging just below $4 a gallon, and are expected to climb further.This is one of the worst times that our food banks have experienced in recent years in terms of the level of need and our ability to meet the need.
Vicki Escarra,America's Second Harvest
Stories of want and need are mounting. In informal surveys, America's Second Harvest has found a growing number of food banks in crisis mode.
Even in San Francisco, a city that has been relatively unscathed by the foreclosure crisis and economic downturn, food pantries are seeing hundreds of new clients.
"We've gone from serving about 450 to 600 clients a day since Christmas," said Sara Miles, director of The Food Pantry.
"This is one of the worst times that our food banks have experienced in recent years in terms of the level of need and our ability to meet the need," said Vicki Escarra, president and chief executive officer of America's Second Harvest.
The Emergency Food Bank of Stockton, which operates out of a cavernous warehouse at the fringe of town, now finds customers lining up several hours before it opens at 10 a.m.
That's because, clients say, the best food - the fresh meat and eggs - goes first.
"If I get here too late, I'll be left with Marshmallow Fluff for 14 days," said Sondra Pearson, a mother of seven. "Not," she added, "that I'm going to turn that down."
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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See all 89 CommentsIf consumer prices are up, and people are spending less at the store, doesn''t this make more food available for the needy?
I will post signs, and people in my locality with proof of a job loss at no fault of their own, like a layoff, and proof of filing with the Employment commission can come get a box full of non-perishable items, based on their family size to some extent, but mostly the ages of their family members.
I can put $200/week to this cause. Anyone else out there who''s willing to do the same?
No change without hunger.
Beware. Great-grandfather.
This is what happens when greedy politicians pass the Farm Bill of last week, and raise the subsidies on the production of ethanol from corn. The United Nations warned us that people were starving in Haiti and other places because of our ethanol factories in the USA.
The price of a bushel of corn has jumped from $4 to $6
and so has the price of other crops like wheat and soybeans, which also raises the prices of meat, milk and eggs.
Obama is voted for this terrible farm bill last week. He is for change - he is changing our budget and the price of groceries.
Posted by angryman55 at 06:06 AM : May 27, 2008
..............
Which is the same reason many talk show hosts (of Neo-Con smell), chant to their masses that there is "no crisis"... and that it is ONLY the fault of those who have gone hungry.
And on these boards, that same mass of sheeple post rhetorical statements that it is only "our fault" and "go get a job" and other similar bull ******.
Alas, it will be they who the American bourgeois beheads first in the coming revolution!
I can''t wait!
I can''''t wait!
Posted by NAUcoming4U at 06:36 AM : May 27, 2008
Neither can I!
Posted by NonayaBiness at 04:04 AM : May 27, 2008
In the case of a bakery, it would seem so, but if they sell less, most likely they will make less products to sell.
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Posted by andylance1 at 04:55 AM : May 27, 2008
+ report abuse
Now I know you bootlickers have a difficult time with all this but your post is absolutely beyond belief, even for a bootlicker. SIX years the Republican Party had control of this nation. What did they do? Well they put into place the most INCOMPETENT Members of any Administration in our HISTORY. They Borrowed Money to pay for Tax Cuts to the Rich who in turned USED those Tax Cuts to move AMERICAN JOBS to other Countries. They tood a Balanced Budget and surplus and turned that into RECORD DEBT. They removed ALL regulations on the Banking Business creating a credit crunch we have NEVER seen since the Great Depression. I could go on here for awhile but my point is WHO was in the leadership of that REPUBLICAN Party? Who sat on their hands while the WORST PRESIDENT and WORST Government in our History was taking us right down the krapper?? YEP! JOHN McSAME! Yet YOU have the NERVE to attack Obama for voting on a bill that would HELP the people he represents SIGNIFICANTLY?? Even for a bootlicker YOU are stupid! Sieg Heil McSame!
Global Warming
Bird Flu
Oil Speculation and Hoarding
Food Shortages, aimed at causing --
Public Unrest, to be followed by draconian laws and controls.
This list goes on and on. The analogies on this post with the French Revolution are very apt, because sooner or later, all those responsible for hurting the people will face the chop. It may get worse during the upheaval but well worth it in the long term.
Make no mistake the Greedy Elite are going to pay dearly for thier behaviour.
The Terrorism that is Globalisation
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Posted by MagicMerlin8 at 07:22 AM : May 27, 2008
+ report abuse
The US had a favorable standing in EVERY major nation on this planet BEFORE we elected Sir Lies-A-Lot. What do you expect when you put a BRAIN DEAD MORON in charge, who LIES to the World, Pounds his chest like a stupid Red Neck and Invades Nations that have done NOTHING to him?? SIEG HEIL BUSH!!
GO AWAY ILLEGAL MEXICANS!!! YOUR NOT WELCOME HERE, GO TO CANADA!
MyOpinion - the Seig Heil reference is a good one and you would do yourself a favor to read Hitler%u2019s Willing Executioners, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, and Inside the Third Reich, in order to gain some understanding of the patriotic fervor which Goebbels was trying to hijack with his coining of the phrase.
It was a term used to hail war and establish the Germans'' New Order. The current US hegemony, and jingoistic platitudes the NeoCons use, have a lot of similarity with what happened in Germany 80 years ago.
There are parallels we old people can see.
Now, back to the topic at hand.
Michael Greenberger was on CSPAN this morning and discussed Phil Gramm''s sneaky 2000 Enron Loophole, which McCain defends. It is time for the Justice Dept to look into it and how it is bankrupting American households. How come our MSM doesn''t discuss the Enron Loophole?
Actually there are many parallels between Bush and Hitler, both lied to start hostilities against Semites. The military scope of their hostilities extended into multiple countries. Both used secret "detention centers" (concentration camps) where the "enemy was tortured, even killed. Both used a powerful propaganda machine to justify their cause.
"It''s insulting to Jewish-Americans who lost loved ones in the furnaces of the concentration camps." Posted by MyOpinion1
But Prescott Bush selling fuel oil to the Nazis was not? Not learning from the mistakes of overlooking the abuse of authority to launch a lie based war is not?
Actually if you read McVet''s statements between the insults, I don''t think you can credibly refute his points, he is a bit emo perhaps, but quite coherent.
Posted by gopsoccermom
Is that sarcasm or stupidity ??? The average ''middle class'' american is struggling and the GOP is tellling them to eat cake--thanks Marie Antoinette
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Posted by gopsoccermom
Ok, Like Bush always does, you didn''t answer any of the other questions. Probably because the answers are no, no, and no.
Posted by gopsoccermom at 09:34 AM : May 27, 2008
.............
"...without thinking."
Which explains the first two times you voted for Bush!
Posted by gopsoccermom
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I''m not being a smart@$$ but would you expand on this a little?
Posted by gopsoccermom
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You now, I have no problem say that I''m a D!ck but even I wouldn''t say some s-hit like that ! ! ha ha
Ditto... in total agreement with you. This should be unacceptable in a country like the US. We have become more third world since the Bush administration has taken power... crumbling infrastructure, high food and gas prices, poor schools (every child left behind), Katrina (where the gov''t federal and local) abandoned thousands to fend for themselves, and now even some middle class people are having to choose whether they eat or go to work.
But, speculators are allowed to drive the price of basic commodities through the roof all for the "free market".
Sick sad world... 1/20/09 can''t come quick enough!
Yes, the president and Congress affect the prices of food on your supper table. Both have deregulated the market (especially) how commodities such as oil, corn, etc. are traded. Now any speculator with the angst to make quick cash can artificially inflate the price of commodities.
Since our gov''t has failed to observe or reign in the speculators, we are all paying higher prices for food; hence less food.
Bush and the Republican congress overaw the largest and most irresponsible deregulation of the markets in our history. There is no oversight into the MASSIVE Fraud taking place in the Commodities and Futures Exchange. This is similar to what Enron did to the price of energy in California in 2000.
So to answer your question, yes, I believe the president can impact your dinner table. Let''s put someone in office that will enforce responsible oversight of our markets.
Posted by gopsoccermom at 09:51 AM : May 27, 2008
............
Clinton worked with the GOP lead congress and reformed the welfare system to focus on getting back to work.
Jamesm apparently has made it "cool" to be stupid on this comment board and you have certainly followed in his footsteps.
Are you married to him or what?!
Posted by gopsoccermom
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You''re just on here to rile people up aren''t you? Because your history is way off.
When clinton left office our economy was in the best shape that it had been in for a long long time. There was also something called a Surplus of money...One more time SURPLUS OF MONEY..... And welfare reform made it harder for people to get Govt assistance.
If I''m not mistaken Bush has spent all of that money AND managed in two terms to accumulate > of our national debt on his own.(meaning that all of the debt this country has accumulated over the past 200 years) george Bush has done > of that in 8 years) and THAT my friend is INSANE ! ! !
posted by dredre2k
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I totally agree with you also, except for the Katrina part.
Posted by jamesm12341 at 10:06 AM : May 27, 2008
............
PTSD?
Well, generally the symptoms do not include throwing insults at Neo-Cons. If he does have such a disease, then encouragement is a good thing.
But I can''t believe that you actually care about his situation. Honestly.
Posted by gopsoccermom
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You''''re just on here to rile people up aren''''t you? Because your history is way off.
When clinton left office our economy was in the best shape that it had been in for a long long time. There was also something called a Surplus of money...One more time SURPLUS OF MONEY..... And welfare reform made it harder for people to get Govt assistance.
If I''''m not mistaken Bush has spent all of that money AND managed in two terms to accumulate of our national debt on his own.(meaning that all of the debt this country has accumulated over the past 200 years) george Bush has done of that in 8 years) and THAT my friend is INSANE ! ! !
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Posted by DSR57 at 10:07 AM : May 27, 2008
= 3/4 three quarters
--- LOL. Just hope your Republican husband doesn''t dump you for the maid, or a MAN. Just remember, you can be replaced like a worn out car when you start to get crows feet... "Squawk" !
(tasteless humor here. I think your comments are hilarious).
Posted by jamesm12341
James, the only "dummy" on this board is you! Have you made it past your first hand in counting yet? Or do you keep recycling the "1" because you can''t get by 4 yet? Go back to school!
She sits around at home and thumbs her nose at the
"little people" while her husband stays at work BREAKING OFF his twinky male secretary ;-) ... All the while, she''s spouting off not even realizing that she''s really the one living on welfare... of her husband''s money.
She will wake up when her rich man cuts off the cash flow when she goes past her "prime". Bettah get your check now or get out of that prenup!
--- LOLOL! Good to see some humor here. :-)
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