Food pantry demand up, funds down

The Redwood Empire Food Bank is serving 8,000 more Sonoma County
residents than ever before, and as the holiday season creeps up,
local food pantries are scrambling to find funding and feed
clients.
“Need is up like never before, that is for certain,” said REFB
Executive Director David Goodman. “Our food is now reaching 78,000
people every single month in Sonoma County. That is up 8,000 over
last year, or an 11.4% increase.”
Goodman noted that no one community in particular was
responsible for the spike in numbers.
“It’s proportional. If you were to look at the map of Sonoma
County and its population, the need increases are proportional.
There is no overrepresentation of any part of the county,” Goodman
said.
Goodman and others providing help for residents in need agreed
that the composition of clients was changing. People who had
previously donated money and food to charitable organizations
suddenly found themselves in line for free food. When that happens,
Goodman noted, their friends and family are forced to confront
their own vulnerability.
“I think people get it now. None of us are immune, and all of us
know somebody who has been impacted by what’s gone on. In my
personal world, everyone I know has been impacted, whether it’s
people who have a partner who has lost a job, a child who has moved
back home, hours that have been cut back, people who are having a
hard time supporting debt, or some sort of unexpected medical
condition,” Goodman said.
A statistically valid survey of REFB food recipients, conducted
in 2009 and released in summer of 2010, shattered some common
misconceptions about the typical food pantry client.
Over half of surveyed food recipients reported jobs as their
primary source of income; less than seven percent relied on General
Assistance funds (commonly known as welfare). Tellingly, 27.4
percent of food recipients reported that they had been or were
presently working in the managerial or professional sector.
But with a median household income of $930 a month—as opposed to
$5,139 for other Sonoma County residents—roughly one third of food
recipients were forced to choose between paying for food and paying
for other necessities.
In fact, 35.2 percent had to choose between paying for food or
paying for utilities; 32.5 percent had to choose between paying for
food or paying for medical care; and 32.4 percent had to choose
between paying for food or making payments on rent or mortgage.
“People say it takes three things: one thing happens, then a
second thing, and a third just pushes them over the edge,” Goodman
said. “I know someone who’s being foreclosed on, and the same
person has a brain tumor. That’s how it happens, and how that
person ends up being in an unimaginable situation. I see that
everywhere—amongst friends, family. When you listen to the news of
the financial condition, instead of trying to imagine what it’s
like, you can probably fill in names and stories of people you
know. That’s a unique experience, even for someone like me who has
been involved in hunger relief for a long time. Suddenly it hits
home.”
The rise in demand was witnessed in Windsor, where the Windsor
Service Alliance has had new clients sign up every Friday at their
weekly food distribution.
“We had seven new clients sign up last Friday, and the week
before it was a couple of new clients. It’s definitely increasing,”
said Barbara Brown, vice president and pantry coordinator for the
Windsor Service Alliance, which runs an all-volunteer food pantry
that includes food purchased from REFB.
One of the biggest challenges of the continued economic slump is
that, as demand rises, donations do not necessarily follow suit. In
Healdsburg, the food pantry has not seen an increase in clientele,
but witnessed a decrease in donations due to the tight times.
“We just had our big fundraiser Saturday night. It went pretty
well, but it was a little smaller turnout… We didn’t make as much
as we normally do, times are tough,” said Robin Ridder, the
Healdsburg Food Pantry manager.
Gleaning organizations, which harvest produce directly from
farms to deliver to local food pantries, have experienced a
slowdown in produce availability with the onset of cooler weather
and frost.
“It has slowed with the end of the harvest and the beginning of
the rainy season. We encourage anyone with surplus
fruit—persimmons, walnuts, lemons, grapefruit—or winter squash or
kale to contact their local gleaning group or pick it themselves
and take it to their local food pantry,” wrote Melita Love of Farm
to Pantry. Contacts for local gleaning organizations can be found
at igrowsonoma.org.
Still, food distribution leaders were optimistic that residents
would continue to support the REFB and local food pantries.
“I’m so impressed with the community, and the volunteer effort
in this town. People have extended that buy local, shop local idea
— people give locally, too,” Ridder said.
“Any time of year, people can help. People’s awareness tends to
peak around now, so now’s a good time to look around and appreciate
what you have, and help if you can,” Goodman said.
Food provision and distribution organizations welcome donations
in the form of time, food, or money.
“Hunger never takes a break,” Brown said—and neither does the
need for emergency shelter or bill payments, which the Windsor
Service Alliance also provides. “We now offer six or seven
different programs, and we’ve really had an increase in the demand
for assistance programs, too.” Brown noted that appeal letters,
requesting donations, would be sent out this week to Windsor
residents.
For many, the 2010 holiday season will be even tougher than the
2009 season. A second wave of business closures has hit many towns
in recent months, and it seems that there is more unoccupied
commercial real estate than ever before.
Goodman noted that he was shocked when driving through an office
park recently at the number of businesses that had disappeared.
“I always think about all the jobs associated with those places
of employment,” Goodman said. “The former employees have zero
income, and it’s a short amount of time before they come here. How
many months can we last?”