& FOOD PANTRY
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Americans’ Food Stamp Use Nears All-Time High
Jane Black, Washington Post
Fueled by rising unemployment and food prices, the number of Americans on food stamps is poised to exceed 30 million for the first time this month, surpassing the historic high set in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina.
The figures will put the spotlight on hunger when Congress begins deliberations on a new economic stimulus package, said legislators and anti-hunger advocates, predicting that any stimulus bill will include a boost in food stamp benefits. Advocates are also optimistic that President-elect Barack Obama, who made campaign promises to end childhood hunger and whose mother once briefly received food stamps, will make the issue a priority next year.
“We soon will have the most food stamps recipients in the history of our country,” said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, a D.C.-based anti-hunger policy organization. “If the economic forecasts come true, we’re likely to see the most hunger that we’ve seen since the 1981 recession and maybe since the 1960s, when these programs were established.”
(26 November 2008)
Food Pantry Woes (video)
Ben Tracey, CBS Evening News
Los Angeles County food pantries have seen a 41% increase in the number of families who are in need of food. Ben Tracy has more on the thousands who are relying on food pantries.
(26 November 2008)
“We used to watch movies about this,” says a middle-class woman at the food pantry in “Now I am this movie.”
Food banks can’t meet growing demand
Judy Keen, USA TODAY
Donations to many of the USA’s food banks are not keeping pace with growing demand as the sour economy forces more people to seek help, charitable organizations say.
“We have seen a 100% increase in demand in the last year … and food donations have dropped precipitously,” says Dana Wilkie, CEO of the Community Food Bank in Fresno, Calif.
The group, which distributes food to 200 food pantries and feeding centers, is supplying cheaper chickens instead of turkeys for Thanksgiving, she says.
Nationally, donations are up about 18%, but demand has grown 25%-40%, says Vicki Escarra of Feeding America, the USA’s largest hunger-relief charity. Feeding America, formerly America’s Second Harvest, has a network of 206 food banks.
About 70% of new clients are making their first visit to a food bank, Escarra says.
(26 November 2008)
