Report: In WNC, 1 in 6 used food pantries in 2009
Posted 02/26/10
Report: In WNC, 1 in 6 used
food pantries in 2009
By Sandra V. Rodriguez – February 4, 2010
ASHEVILLE – One in six residents of Western North
Carolina has gone to a food pantry for assistance in
the past year, according to a new report.
The national study, Hunger in America 2010, was
sponsored by Feeding America, the nation’s largest
hunger-relief organization. The survey, taken from
February to June 2009, reinforced what Asheville’s
MANNA FoodBank has been reporting locally for the
past year: The need for food assistance has
increased.
“That’s big, and the rest of the community needs to
know it because hunger is a very hidden problem,
particularly in rural areas,” said Kitty Schaller,
executive director of MANNA. “You just don’t see it.
But if you just look around, one in six neighbors,
that’s what it is.”
Schaller wasn’t surprised by the numbers because
“the issues keep escalating, the economy, in terms
of jobs, is not a great deal better than it was” when
the study was conducted.
According to the report, 106,600 different people
sought assistance from pantries served by MANNA.
Many of the people served by food banks that are,
like MANNA, part of the Feeding America network,
said they were struggling with unemployment,
facing difficult choices between food and basic
necessities or grappling with skyrocketing
healthcare bills.
Joshua Stack, with MANNA, said the nonprofit is
fortunate in the support it gets from the community,
but there is still a “hunger gap” that exists between
the supply of food and the requests for emergency
food.
“One of the bright spots is that some folks already
get it,” Schaller said. “They’re responding in their
own communities. There are volunteers who are
volunteering with food pantries … somehow trying
to help. That keeps it (the report) from being just
bleak.”
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010302040020
