May 8, 2006
Associated Press
CONCORD, N.H. –Food pantries around the state are struggling to keep their shelves stocked, due to cutbacks in the amount of federal surplus foods.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture provides every state with an “entitlement” amount of basic foods, based on the number of low-income residents.
However, “bonus commodities” beyond the entitlement amount have been cut drastically this year. Last year, bonus foods comprised nearly three-quarters of what the USDA sent to the state — 43 truckloads, said Randy Emerson.
This year, Emerson hopes to get 25 truckloads. He works for Community Action Program Belknap-Merrimack Counties, which contracts with the state to deliver USDA commodities.
“On paper, we’re not being cut because funding for the entitlement isn’t being cut. But there’s less surplus being purchased,” he said. “The end result is that we’re getting less food.”
The shortage has left pantry workers looking for donations from individuals and businesses to help them feed a growing number of clients.
“We just hope that people will continue to make more donations,” said Barbara Chellis, who runs the Community Action Program’s food pantry.
First Congregational Church’s food pantry distributed food for 4,704 meals last month, many of them to Somali Bantu refugees who have been resettled in Concord over the last few years.
“You become friends with” the clients, said Linda Strand, a volunteer there. “And then when you don’t have food to give them and you know they’re so hungry, it’s so hard.”
Joan Smith, who runs the food pantry at Immaculate Conception Church in Penacook, says she doesn’t blame the federal government, because a lot of food has been diverted to help those who lost their homes and jobs after Hurricane Katrina.
“We need to remember that the pipeline has been interrupted because a lot of the food has been sent south,” she said. Smith also is sending some food to Alstead, which is still recovering from flooding in October.
But Alice Blodgett, director of Friends of Forgotten Children, said she does not know how the organization will meet demand.
“We’re not church-affiliated. We have to raise our own money, so it is hard,” she said.
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Information from: Concord Monitor, http://www.cmonitor.com
Source: AP, May 8, 2006
