HUNGER IN AMERICA – 1 in 7 Rely On Food Banks To Survive

HUNGER IN AMERICA – 1 in 7 Rely On Food Banks To Survive

Submitted by IWB, on December 14th, 2015

Largest donation in Alberta food banks’ history supports community during downturn Holidays in America are centered around food. While many dream for weeks of sugarplums, ham and the perfect table settings, approximately 48 million more are thinking of food in a different light: Will there be enough to go around? And that’s where local food pantries and soup kitchens come into the picture. Kaitlyn Saulle, an adult mental health case manager with Opportunity Alliance, said that her clients often do not receive more than $20-$30 per month in SNAP benefits. That means places like the Project FEED Food Pantry, where she and a client visited last week, are a lifeline.

Donations from the Good Shepherd Food Bank in Auburn and local grocery stores provide the bulk of this food, but food drives like the annual Stuff the Bus event can fill the pantry for two to three months, according to communications manager Jaime McLeod. Last year, the event brought in 100,000 pounds of food, including cash donations. Since its inception in 2006, Stuff the Bus has collected over 1 million pounds of food. Those that run food banks all over America say that demand for their services just continues to explode. It always amazes me that there are still people out there that insist that an “economic collapse” is not happening. From their air-conditioned homes in their cushy suburban neighborhoods they mock the idea that the U.S. economy is crumbling. But if they would just go down and visit the local food banks in their areas, they would see how much people are hurting.

From November 1st, $5 billion was wiped off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as a result of a planned stimulus withdrawal. Almost 50 million Americans who are supported by the program face an average loss of $36 dollars a month, which is a significant amount for those living near the poverty line. Additional cuts are also in the pipeline.

“It got to the point where I opened my pantry and there was nothing. Nothing. What was I going to feed my kids?” Smallenburg says, adjusting a bag of fresh groceries on her arm.

Feeding America. “It means that people in America have to make trade-offs. They have to pick between buying food for their children or paying for utilities, rent and medicine.”

One in seven Americans – 46 million people – rely on food pantries and meal service programs to feed themselves and their families, the study found.

“Hunger exists in literally every county in America,” Aiken says. “It’s an urban problem, it’s a suburban problem, and it’s a rural problem.”

“The people who come here are hard workers. They are employed. They are the school bus drivers, the lab techs in doctors offices, receptionists, the janitors who clean the floor of your children’s school,” Patterson says. “They just can’t make ends meet because some kind of crisis has hit them.”

The Hunger in America study found that of people who use food banks: 33% of households have at least one family member with diabetes. 65% of households have a child under 18 or someone 60 or older. “Children are going to school, not looking forward to learning but looking forward to eating,” says Shamia Holloway, spokeswoman for the Capital Area Food Bank.

http://investmentwatchblog.com/hunger-in-america-1-in-7-rely-on-food-banks-to-survive/