John Boyle: Skeptic meets hungry, and MANNA volunteers
Posted 08/02/10
Sometimes, I just have to slap my internal skeptic
around a little bit.
As a journalist, my innate skepticism has driven me
to question how we can simultaneously have an
obesity epidemic in this country and a hunger
epidemic. So, when Donna Pierce, who coordinates
special gifts services at MANNA FoodBank, offered to
take a reporter along Wednesday as they delivered
food to the western counties, I jumped at the
chance.
It was an eye-opener in two major ways:
- First of all, I’m amazed at the sheer number of
people involved in distributing food in the
mountains. MANNA has 500 volunteers who come in
to their East Asheville location every month, and it
works with 300-plus agencies in 16 counties, so
we’re talking thousands of people involved in
helping hungry people get the most elemental staple
of life: food.
- The number of people on the receiving end.
MANNA noted in February that Feeding America, the
nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief
organization, found that 106,600 people in Western
North Carolina, or roughly one in six, receive
emergency food each year through MANNA’s
network of emergency food providers. These
numbers include 33,000 children and 9,600
elderly.
That’s a lot of hunger.
But MANNA truck driver Lori Schmoll is up to the
job on this day, delivering fresh produce to
Haywood, Jackson and Graham counties. About 22
percent of MANNA’s food distribution last year was
produce, part of a thrust to help people eat
healthier. Schmoll delivers full-time, but she makes
this particular run twice a month.
With the Grateful Dead on the stereo, Schmoll runs
through the 10 gears it takes to get the big box truck up to speed on the interstate and talks about her background. At 41, she’s worked a bunch of
jobs – baker in a grocery store, recycling center
worker in California, electrical meter installer, fish
cannery worker in Alaska – but before joining
MANNA almost four years ago she’d never driven
anything larger than a van.
A strong woman with blond pigtails, she describes
her job as “half driving, half physical work. “This is
actually the best job I’ve ever had,” she says.
I asked her about people being skeptical about
whether there’s real need. “It’s easy to be cynical,
but the majority of the people (getting food) are
definitely not getting a free handout,” she says.
‘There’s need’
At the first stop, in the Ingles parking lot in
Waynesville, a handful of pickup truck drivers wait
to take the food back to their agencies.
D.C. Smith and a helper load up his truck and a
small trailer, food they’ll take back to the Fine’s
Creek Community Association about 20 miles away.
They’ve partnered with MANNA since 2006 to serve
hungry folks in the Fine’s Creek, White Oak and
Painted Creek communities.
“There’s probably 50-60 people waiting on me right
now,” Smith said. “It don’t matter where you go,
there’s need. We’ve got three families that worked in Tennessee that when the rock slide hit on I-40, they couldn’t get to Tennessee. Now they can get there,
but their jobs went to somebody else.”
Charlie Boyer helps load the boxes of food, which
include oranges and organic squash.
“I really don’t know what to think when we are
getting people who, honest to God, are hard up and
just can’t get a job,” he said. “At my house, we are
on food stamps. This helps us out.”
Boyer, 63, took early retirement to care for his wife,
who is on disability and can’t work. He feels luckier
than most.
“A lot of people get laid off or they’re single
parents,” he said. “It’s really sad. They just can’t do
any better.”
MANNA says only 45 percent of their client
households receive Food and Nutrition Services
benefits (formerly known as food stamps). A lot of
folks are eligible but are too proud to apply.
Demand was strong before the recession hit hard in
2007, but it’s steadily risen since then. Lost jobs
translate into lost income, and that again translates
into little or no money to buy food.
“A lot of folks who’ve never been in this situation
before don’t have the skill set to deal with it,” Pierce
said.
As far as obesity goes, Pierce notes that the food
low-income people can afford is often high-fat,
cheap, processed food that can lead to weight gain.
MANNA and its partner agencies stress fresh
produce, and some even offer simple recipes for the
fresh foods they send out.
A private nonprofit, MANNA finds itself squeezed by
demand on one end and tighter supplies on the
other. The food bank has a strong partnership with
Ingles Markets, and it receives excess food from
other chains, including Earth Fare, Walmart and Bi-
Lo.
But increased efficiencies in ordering and inventory
control have reduced the amount of food MANNA
receives, and increased the amount it has to buy.
Another challenge is finding enough volunteers.
“The real issue here is the aging population of the
volunteers,” Pierce said, noting that a lot of younger
folks leave the outlying counties in search of work.
‘It’s a godsend’
The next stop is the Jackson County Community
Service Center in Sylva, where the county’s Council
on Aging distributes produce to the elderly and
anyone else in need.
Karen Davis, nutrition program director for the
Jackson County Council on Aging, said they serve
about 100 families, or 250 people, with the produce
distribution. Waiting in the chairs today are a dozen
people, ranging from retirees to a young mother
with her child. She doesn’t want to talk, saying a
little nervously, “This is my first time here.”
“We’re seeing a lot more families come in – complete families, from grandchildren to the
grandparents,” Davis says.
Bessie Brooks, a soft-spoken widow from Whittier,
makes her way through the line, selecting grapes,
squash and other produce. At 72, she gets by on
Social Security, but she only qualified for $10 a
month in food stamps.
“This really helps me out, as far as the produce,”
she says, adding that she’s been coming to this
distribution point for about a year. “This way you get a balanced meal. It’s a godsend; it really is.”
Sharon Scott moves through the line with her
grandson, 4-year-old Blake Styles, in tow. After four
back surgeries, Scott can’t work as a certified
nursing aide anymore and is on disability, but she
still takes care of three grandchildren.
Out of the $1,000 a month she has in income, about
half goes to rent, and she also has to buy medicine
for her back issues and pay other bills.
“The money just doesn’t go very far right now, the
way the economy is,” she says.
Next up is the Swain County Family Resource Center
in Bryson City, where Executive Director Melissa
Barker says they serve about 100 families a month.
“This past year we’ve seen the numbers probably
double because of the economy and the number of
people out of work,” Barker says. “As the economy
has changed, we’re seeing more middle-aged
families and younger people, as well as the
traditional older people we serve.”
Unemployment numbers have improved some
recently, but they’re still fairly grim in Haywood,
Swain and Graham, as of June – 8.9, 9.7 and 12.6
percent, respectively, according to the Employment
Security Commission. Buncombe’s rate stood at 8.2.
Again, a half-dozen people are waiting for the
MANNA truck to arrive, including Bryson City
residents Kattie Walker and her mother, Marie
Adams. Adams says her Social Security comes to
$888 a month.
Walker notes that they’re hanging on, but the
economy has simply flattened a lot of families.
“We need more help,” Walker says flatly. “They do all
they can, but a lot of families make too much for
(assistance) but not enough to get by.”
Janette Frady is retired now after years of work
cleaning hotel rooms. She counts the produce in
particular as a blessing.
“It really helps. I can’t fix a garden like I used to,”
she says. “It’s not your golden years, like they say
it’s going to be – the bills still come.”
Frady laughs, but the truth is clear.
At the last stop, the Graham Emergency Food Bank
just outside Robbinsville, three volunteers wait to
unload the food left in Schmoll’s truck. They’re all
retirees but remarkably spry.
Gerald Ledbetter, vice president and treasurer, says
about 25 percent of the people they serve are
children, about 25 percent adults in their child-
rearing years.
Twice a month they distribute food, including
today’s produce and beef, to about 500 families, or
roughly 1,000 people.
But they’re worried about Graham County cutting
funding to their program.
“We’re getting $15,000 a year, and without that
money we would be forced to shut down by
November or December,” Ledbetter says.
Vann Faircloth, 68, has been volunteering at the
food bank for six years, despite his own health
issues.
He’s got a baseball-sized tobacco chew in his cheek
and rarely stops talking – or hauling food into the
center.
“We all ought to feel blessed enough to try to help
other people,” he says.
If that doesn’t wipe away a little skepticism, I don’t
know what will.
This is the opinion of John Boyle. Contact him at
jboyle@citizen-times.com, and read his blog at
citizen-times.com/boyleitdown.
