Bare shelves; photo: Orange County Register, via assistnews.net

Food agencies turning away hungry in Orange County

Hunger in Orange County is growing so quickly that some local food agencies are turning away the needy, reports Jeremy Reynalds, correspondent for ASSIST News Service.

According to a story by Jacob Nelson for the Orange Country Register, at South County Outreach, a Lake Forest pantry that gives food directly to people who ask for it, the executive director expects to turn away 300 families by the end of this year. At the Orange County Food Bank, which serves as a nonprofit wholesaler by providing food to other agencies that serve individuals, no new food pantry clients have been accepted since March 1.

The Register pointed out that the cut-offs have come as the national recession shows some signs of ebbing, and even as agencies are giving out record amounts of food.

Through the first nine months of this year, the Orange County Register reported, South County Outreach helped more hungry people than it has in any full year of its 20-year history. During the same period, the Orange County Food Bank helped nearly 1.5 million people, a 53 percent jump from 2008.

That surge in need – which the Register reported local experts say has occurred at virtually all of the county's 400-plus food pantries and both major food banks – is just the reason food providers are limiting what they give out.

“Earlier in the year we were showing double the number of people served,” said Mark Lowry, director of the Orange County Food Bank. “That's when we said ‘No new agencies; no new people. We can't sustain that.’”

However, some agencies have not yet had to turn people away.

The Orange County Register reported that Second Harvest Food Bank in Orange County, which provides food to smaller agencies, has taken on 60 new pantries in the past year and now provides for 440 food pantries throughout the county. To meet the increased demand, the food bank launched Fresh Rescue, an aggressive new program to get more produce from grocery stores. It has also revamped its boy and girl scout-led food drive, Scouting for Food, which takes place Saturday, Nov. 14, outside of 43 Albertsons throughout the county.

But, the Register reported, in a state facing a huge increase in demand for food, pantries need more help than Second Harvest can offer.

“I need around 400 turkeys for Thanksgiving, and they've (Second Harvest) got six for me,” said Ken Carpenter, a full-time volunteer at South County Outreach. “I'm looking for a lot more than six turkeys.”

The Register story reported that since February, South County Outreach has been adding about 150 households a month, bringing to 60,000 the total number of people it has fed so far this year. It took 18 years for the food pantry to serve 30,000 people, and only two more for that number to double.

But supply hasn't kept pace with demand. At the end of last year South County Outreach had an inventory of 40,000 pounds of food. Last week, the inventory was about 2,000 pounds.

That's why, in September, South County Outreach stopped signing up new customers.

The Register reported that Ed Ewart, the agency's executive director, described the move as “temporary,” and said he hopes year-end food donations will allow the agency to take new clients soon. The move to limit clients, he added, goes against everything his agency has tried to achieve.

“Our tradition has been to really be here with emergency food for anyone who lives here in Orange County,” Ewart said. “We relive the agony of (the decision to turn away new customers) every day.”

However, the Orange County Register reported, even as pantries cut off new recipients, few people are actually going without food.

People turned away from South County Outreach and other pantries get referrals to places where food may still be available. The Orange County Food Bank, for example, gives referrals to three other pantries; South County Outreach has a sheet listing ten.

“We know that every other food pantry is experiencing the same things we are,” Lowry said. “So the likelihood that they'll get help in the very first call they make is not great.”

The Register reported that food agencies also encourage people they can't serve to look into applying for food stamps, a program that historically has been underutilized in Orange County. Lowry said fewer than half the people in Orange County who qualify for food stamps are enrolled in the program.

Food pantries are also giving smaller portions, the Register reported. A family of four getting help from South County Outreach is limited to 85 pounds of food a month, compared with 100 pounds a month available a year ago.

The Orange County Register said according to Eric Manke, the Public Policy and Communications Manager at California Association of Food Banks, such moves are typical. “A lot of food banks, rather than turning someone away, they're trying to serve all the people requesting assistance – but with less food.”

The Register said in some instances, according to Ewart, people choose to take less food because they know how little is available for everybody.

“We've given people full bags of groceries and have had them give us stuff back,” he said. “They say, ‘This is too much, the line is too long, we got a glimpse of the shelves ... you don't have enough.’”

The Register said while agencies struggle to get ready for the holiday season – typically a time of peak demand – it's the months in early 2010 that really have them worried.

“In the past, we've had to borrow storage area for all the food we receive in November and December, and that's tided us over in January, February and March," the Register reported Ewart said.

“This year, we're all wondering if we going to give it all out in November and December.”

TAGS: USA Orange County hunger Orange County Food Bank food bank emergency food

[11/17/2009]

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