Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 22, 1994 TAG: 9407220117
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Boy Scouts conducted a drive in February; the Subway sandwich shop chain held one in April; mail carriers in May.
Still, the food bank's supply of staples - meats and vegetables - is dwindling, said Pamela Irvine, food bank director. Though the food bank received 1.3 million pounds of food during the first six months of this year, soft drinks and snack foods made up half that amount.
"The largest percentage of products we have received has been beverages and snacks," Irvine said. "They are great but we need good staple food that will feed people.
"It's scary. Agencies are saying they need more food to keep up with the needs of the community."
The food bank, in a 3,000-square-foot warehouse in Northwest Roanoke, operates like a giant grocery store for its 425 nonprofit member agencies - homeless shelters, halfway houses, soup kitchens and food pantries. It receives donations from food companies and other sources and sells the donated food to its member agencies for a small per-pound price.
The food bank gets goods from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Temporary Emergency Assistance Program; from Second Harvest, the nation's largest charitable food program; and from local donations, including food drives.
But goods from two of those sources - those on which the food bank has relied for most of its staple food supply - have decreased, Irvine said.
For the first six months of this year, the food bank received 250,165 pounds of products from the USDA program, compared with 496,182 during the first six months of last year, Irvine said.
Second Harvest donations for the same period this year are 260,545, down from 589,635 pounds last year, she said.
Combine that with companies selling their products through the second-day market for cash, a lack of new donors and technological strides that cut down on grocers over-ordering, and "there's a problem," Irvine said.
Food drives have picked up some of the slack.
The Boy Scout drive in February brought in 9,300 pounds of food; the mail carrier drive in May 150,000 pounds.
But a drive the food bank kicked off the first week of this month to heighten public awareness about hunger - called "Check Out Hunger in Virginia" - has not drawn good response, Irvine said.
"It's been very disappointing," said Irvine. The campaign, which ends July 31, allows grocery shoppers to contribute money to Virginia food banks at checkout counters.
"We're [at] only one-third of what our goal is. And it's across the state, not just in Roanoke."
The food bank has considered purchasing food outright, then selling it to agencies at a higher fee.
"Most food banks are doing that because they don't have a choice," Irvine said.
Irvine has taken her concern for community hunger to the New Century Council, where she is a member of its Health and Wellness Committee.
"Malnutrition is rampant," she said. "People are using money to pay their bills, and then they are eating on what's left. That's why food pantries are seeing so many people coming to them for food."
Irvine fears the need will continue to increase faster than the food bank's supplies.
"We've been through the fire in 1989, and the flood of '85, when the agencies drained almost all of our resources," she said.
"The food shortage is another obstacle we'll just have to overcome."
by CNB