Printer-Friendly
Email this Story
Post a Comment (0)
Area food pantries see surge in need
A year ago, people accustomed to making six-figure incomes would normally be strangers to a food pantry, unless they were there to make a donation.Not anymore.
With the economy taking a plunge and thousands of people losing their jobs, some of those families now frequent the local food pantries.
“This time last year, those people who had well-paying jobs and were making it on their own are now no longer able to buy food,” said Pam Ryan, volunteer coordinator for Chantilly's Western Fairfax Christian Ministries.
The nonprofit will continue to ask its supporters for more food and has even recruited a local family to help them put more food on the shelves.
“Definitely, the need is greater than ever before,” Ryan said.
At Reston Interfaith, the number of clients it has served in all its programs this year has already jumped 40 percent, according to Ellie Aguayo, assistant director of neighborhood resources for the nonprofit.
The number of food pantry customers for Reston Interfaith surpassed last fiscal year's numbers by about 1,200 by March, the end of the third quarter, Aguayo said.
“We're serving a lot of people whose hours are reduced because their employers can't afford to pay them,” Aguayo said.
Western Fairfax Christian Ministries has seen the number of its food pantry customers increase more than 10 percent and the clients are “more multicultural than ever,” Ryan said.
Food prices have increased an average of 4.5 percent across the country, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
At the same time, rising food and gas prices have translated into a 40-percent decline in the number of donated items to the Central Virginia Food Bank, according to statistics from the office of Sen. Jim Webb (D). Webb visited the food bank that serves more than 30 counties on June 13 to discuss the impact of high food costs on the state.
“The strain of rising prices can be seen every day with increased demands for food bank services all across Virginia, particularly in the most rural communities and the inner cities,” Webb said in a statement.
Reston Interfaith's strategy is to ramp up outreach to donors. It has also started accepting food donations from local farmers, Aguayo said.
Western Fairfax Christian Ministries is banking on new, creative ways to stock the shelves, like partnering with the Aull family of the Greenbriar neighborhood to get local swim teams involved in the process. Food pantry workers there are not too worried about getting enough donations because they have a reliable group of about 30 churches supporting them, Ryan said.
You must be logged in to post a comment.