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Summary:

Hungry area residents who have to turn to food banks for their next meal are finding the shelves increasingly bare.

April 29

Food pantries finding cupboards bare

The Detroit News
Catherine Jun

Pontiac — Pantries throughout Metro Detroit are reporting staggering numbers of families coming through their doors, which means keeping the shelves stocked with essential food items — juice, bread and canned fruit, meat and veggies — has become much harder.

At the Salvation Army’s food pantry on Oakland Avenue, all that remained on the ceiling-high slats on a recent morning were cans of tomato soup, cereal, soda crackers and spaghetti noodles.

Both freezers were empty.

“It’s like I’m Mother Hubbard,” said Gail Hardy, a director at the facility.

At Lighthouse Outreach Center of Macomb County, food donations leave just as quickly as they come in.

“It’s just going out so fast, you can’t keep it on the shelves,” Pastor Mel Gower said. The agency provides emergency food to families as well as meals to seniors through a state program and is running low on canned meats, soup and fruit. It receives 6,000 to 10,000 people a month, up 40 percent since the start of 2008.

Food pantries have suffered through periods in the past when their shelves have been nearly empty; too often, it’s a matter of when the collection from a local canned food drive reaches the facility. But nowadays, organizers say, growing demand is to blame.

“It’s a matter of the fact that the need is so high,” said Sue Figurski, a coordinator at the Macomb Food Program, which supplies 55 local pantries and churches. Since October, her office has received about 50 percent more food requests by phone, she said.

“I’ve never seen an economic crisis like this,” Figurski added.

In February and March, Gleaners Community Food Bank distributed a million pounds more of food compared to the same time last year. That’s a 25 percent increase.

“To have a spike like this … when it’s usually a level time — it’s a warning sign to us,” said Gerry Brisson, vice president of development at Gleaners, which distributes emergency food to 450 agencies in Metro Detroit.

With higher donations and order limits placed on local agencies, Gleaners hasn’t had to turn down any food requests, he said. But when schools let out in the summer, an even higher demand is anticipated, and major food drives over the next few months will likely be scheduled to make up the anticipated shortfall.

At the Salvation Army in Pontiac, the dwindling food supply has meant providing families with bags containing fewer items than in the past, Hardy said.

“They’re running a little light,” she said. In April last year, the facility served 192 families. So far this month, 243 families have come in.

The pantry near downtown serves the poorest of Oakland County. Its location also means that area donors don’t have much to give.

Hardy stocks her shelves with food bought through Gleaners. And despite the food bank’s nominal rates, Hardy may be forced to spend more of the facility’s limited dollars, in part because the region’s Red Kettle drive last winter raised less money than in previous years.

“With budgets tight and people saving for a rainy day, people are not as apt” to give. “At this point, I’m not picky,” Hardy said. “Whatever you feed your own family, we’d love to have here.”

Hardy has made calls to local churches, but was told their food collections were committed to other pantries, she said. Her staff has resorted to handing out coupons for groceries and household items, and posting fliers from grocery stores on double-coupon days.

Many pantries are bending the rules so they can help families affected by the economic downturn.

“A guy could have been making 60 grand last week and this week, nothing,” said Chuck Vella, founder of Fish and Loaves Community Food Pantry in Taylor.

“And some of the people that were making big dollars are worse off than people who were making