Food charities in Florida’s Tampa Bay region are struggling to find supplies to meet continued high demand at shelters, soup kitchens, and other facilities, reports the St. Petersburg Times.
Normal collections cover only half the demand for the more than 50,000 people who receive emergency food weekly in the 10 counties surrounding Tampa Bay. Among other methods to supplement supplies, local charities have snagged food photographed for supermarket advertisements and collected samples from a produce show as soon as it closed.
“It’s been a real eye opener into how quickly we’re losing ground,” said Pat Rogers, director of the Tampa Bay arm of Feeding America, a national food-bank network.
0 Responses to Tampa Bay Food Charities Scramble to Meet Demand
susanhsanford - March 9, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Most food banks face the same situation. Feeding America released its Hunger in America study in February, which reported that one in eight Americans is food insecure. The study can be viewed at http://www.feedingamerica.org. Our food bank, Mid-South Food Bank, provided food for 185,500 different people last year, 62,000 of them children! The rolls have increased so dramatically because of job loss. Many people who were contributors two years ago now have to access emergency food pantries for the first time in their lives. Meeting the need is daunting and urgent, but new initiative like Mobile Pantries for underserved areas are making an important difference.