With donations dwindling, food pantries struggle to stock shelves

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers LOSING INVENTORY—Cecilia Rexford, left, who runs the Jehovah-Jireh Food Pantry, finds items for Camarillo resident Norma Argueta as she shops in the pantry last Friday. The local food pantry receives much of its food from FOOD Share, Ventura County's regional food bank. FOOD Share, however, is experiencing a dip in donations and the dropoff is having an affect on many of the smaller pantries like the one run locally by Rexford. Like food pantry operators around the county and across the country, Kittie Sidermutz is being squeezed.

Hit with higher food prices and fewer donations, the coordinator of Care and Share in Simi Valley has helped more than 800 new families this year. The organization had been serving 650 to 700 families.

"We're seeing people who used to donate food coming in and getting food now," Sidermutz said. "We're getting hit really hard."

During the first eight months of last year, the nonprofit served 1,947 households, more than 4,700 individuals, compared to the 2,762 families or nearly 7,500 people so far this year.

The squeeze has forced the agency to change its policies. For 30 years, Care and Share gave food to the hungry based solely on their word. As of Aug. 1, low income must be proven, and applicants have to show proof they've applied first for government assistance. The changes were necessary so that everyone who showed up received food, Sidermutz said

Compounding the situation has been the decrease in federal assistance to the nation's food banks. Care and Share gets most of its food from community donations, but a significant amount is provided by a federal grant administered through Oxnard-based FOOD Share, the county's regional food bank. The grant money, which benefits 28 other agencies that applied for it, has been slowly drying up over the last few years.

In 2005, Care and Share received about $14,000 in food through the grant. Last year, it was down $3,481.

Food pantries and soup kitchens across the country are faced with the same problem. According to a survey by America's Second Harvest, a national food bank network, 15 to 20 percent more people are seeking assistance from food banks, many of which are unable to meet demand without reducing the amount of food they dispense or cutting back on operations.

Pantries are receiving fewer free canned goods and other nonperishable items from the USDA's Emergency Food Assistance Program. In 2002, the federal agency supplied 97 million pounds of food to food banks around the country. The number dropped to 39 million last year, and this year is projected at 38 million, according to the California Association of Food Banks.

Higher food prices, driven by worldwide competition for food and federal funding that's remained flat since 2002, are the causes of the decline, the association said. Adding to the situation are recent Midwestern floods that wiped out soy and corn crops.

In the last year, the trickledown effect has meant a loss of 300,000 pounds of food from the USDA to FOOD Share, operations manager Jayson Muelder said.

In the last fiscal year, FOOD Share distributed a total of 7.8 million pounds of food to its 155 partner agencies, such as Care and Share. The year before it was 9.1 million pounds, Muelder said. Just more than 10 percent of FOOD Share's food comes from the USDA program, but the overall loss of food since 2007 has been 1.3 million pounds, the equivalent of 200,000 families going without a meal, Muelder said.

And food donations from grocery stores and the community at large are down 12 percent, he said.

The decline has meant less food for more than 1,500 seniors in the 32 Brown Bag meal programs FOOD Share operates around the county, Muelder said.

And skyrocketing gasoline prices have forced FOOD Share to consider if it's worth the price of gas to pick up food from other food banks, which is unfortunate because it limits the variety of food that can be offered to pantries, Muelder said.

"It's just really affecting us from all angles," he said.

Relief could be served up as soon as Oct. 1, however, when funds from the recently enacted Farm Bill begin rolling in.

Legislators passed the $250 million per year Farm Bill in May, giving the nation's food banks an apparent increase over the $140 million Farm Bill of 2002.

California's share, at $20.8 million, represents an increase of $13 million a year.

But while the new bill seems to protect the USDA's buying power by adjusting for annual inflation, the California Association of Food Banks isn't convinced the country's hungry will come out ahead.

"The question is, does that buy more food?" association spokesperson Jessica Bartholow said. "Unqualitatively, it's a better Farm Bill . . . but how much of the extra money is going to be eaten up by inflation?"

Bartholow said the association will know more after food from the USDA finds its way to food banks.

In the meantime, some pantries in Ventura County are finding ways to feed the hungry.

Patricia Calderon of Catholic Charities in Moorpark said if it weren't for strong community support, they'd have only the three or four nonperishable goods from FOOD Share to give to each of the 350 families they serve. Last year the nonprofit fed 230 families, she said.

"Thank God that we have good people that care about people here in Moorpark," Calderon said.

Ceclia Rexford of JehovahJireh food pantry in Camarillo drives her pickup truck to two grocery stores in Westlake Village to collect food donations.

"I had no choice but to go out there," Rexford said. "To me it's worth it because I can give (my clients) good, nourishing food."

Rexford said the pantry serves 80 families, a number that's remained steady despite the fact that about three new families show up every Friday at the tiny storefront pantry. Rexford said its because about the same number of families move to greener economic pastures, where they're finding work and affordable housing.

"So that's how the pantry is surviving," Rexford said. "I'm lucky I haven't had to turn anyone away."