But this 1 in 8 statistic is becoming more and more stale as the minutes go by...
While doing research for this diary, I had an eye opening conversation with Kady Engquist, the Marketing Coordinator at Food Lifeline -- Washington State's largest hunger relief agency and affiliate of Feeding America. Food Lifeline provides assistance and distributes food to about 300 food banks here in The Evergreen State.
In October, 2008, Food Lifeline saw a 25% increase in new clients above those from September. The increase in demand is growing at an alarming rate, and is not likely to slow or reverse itself soon. Already this year, one food pantry in West Seattle reported a 300% increase in new clients -- mostly people who have never used a food bank before. People who are twenty to thirty years old are accessing Washington State food banks for the first time at an unprecedented rate. Although we usually associate food banks with abject poverty, the current economic crisis is quickly eroding into our middle class. In fact, one of Food Lifeline's regular donors recently became a client and now must stand in line at one of their food banks in order to eat. Nationwide there are folks who never imagined that they would want for food that cannot say whether they will be able to eat tomorrow.
The little girl who goes to school with your daughter could be visiting a food bank. Your coworker might not have come to work with a full belly this morning because he or she had to skip breakfast. Your friend’s grandmother could be visiting the food bank because she lives on a fixed income, has increasing rent costs, and is forced to choose between paying for food or paying for medicine. It’s not as uncommon as people might think for their community members and neighbors to be using a food bank.
- Kady Engquist, Marketing Coordinator at Food Lifeline in Shoreline, Wa
The Seattle area food banks are pinched under the new demand. At Thanksgiving, Food Lifeline reported an enormous increase in need -- one food bank that provided 600 turkeys in 2007 needed 1400 turkeys in 2008 to meet demand during the holiday. As the hunger becomes more dire and widespread, relief agencies and food banks must create new methods to meet increasing need, and they must expand their enterprises in spite of the rapidly contracting economy.
AP (Dec 13, 2008) describes the novel challenges food banks face today:
Food banks nationwide are also suffering a sizable impact from the recent peanut butter recalls. This not only removes a staple protein from the shelves, but it imposes an extra burden on food bank staff -- they have to sort through inventory to determine which products are safe or potentially contaminated. This creates a drain on their food supply and on their manpower. There is an urgent need for both donations and volunteers. Please contact your local food bank as soon as you can to find out if they need help.
If you read the previous Filling Empty Bowls diaries, you are probably convinced that we have a serious hunger problem in this country. You might want to know how you can do a maximum amount of good with your time and money, and what will happen with the funds we are asking you to donate. So what happens to the money you donate to Feeding America?
Food Lifeline and other Feeding America affiliates depend primarily on getting regular surplus -- food that would otherwise be thrown in a dumpster -- and distributing it to food banks. The economic slowdown does not necessarily affect amount of available surplus: there are millions of pounds of food that get wasted every day because food service organizations do not know that it is useful. Feeding America needs help getting that surplus into food banks all over the nation. Their primary goal is to do everything they can to keep surplus out of the waste stream distribute it to hungry people. Plenty of food is out there -- the problem is one of logistics, transportation, and distribution. Feeding America affiliates need to get the word out to grocery stores, restaurants, and others in the food service industry so that they know there is something they can do besides throw out their waste -- and they need the resources to transport the food to hungry people. The money you donate provides resources to Feeding America so they can get that surplus to people who need it.
At Food Lifeline, 5% of every financial donation is used for administrative costs. That means for every $1 donation, .95 cents goes directly toward feeding hungry people. In Seattle, $1 can provide the equivalent of 5 meals -- money donations are a tremendously efficient course of action.
Here in the greater Seattle area, Food Lifeline is now partnering with other organizations to stretch their donated dollars. For example, they've partnered with Seattle Public Utilities to expand their Seattle's Table program and increase the surplus they can collect each day. Feeding America provides Food Lifeline with national connections to corporations and organizations that can help direct surplus to their distribution centers. Food Lifeline is currently working to add an additional truck to their fleet.
It is because they need funds for surplus collection that your monitary donations are so important.
Feeding America affiliates also participate in backpack programs that feed impoverished school children on weekends and during vacation breaks when they cannot get a subsidized lunch. For a great discussion, see JellyBearDemMom's excellent diary about feeding hungry children. Backpack programs need volunteers -- it takes a lot of manpower to pack and deliver all of those bags. This is a great place to volunteer if you do not have the means to donate money.
General Statistics for Food Lifeline -- 2008:
2008 Missing Meals Report for Western Washington State.
*Food Lifeline serves nearly 600,000 people -- enough to fill the stadium at Qwest Field about nine times. 38% of those we serve are children, and 13% of those we serve are seniors.
*Five percent of every financial donation is used for administrative costs: for every $1 donated, Food Lifeline provides 5 meals to hungry people.
*Food Lifeline distributes 21 million pounds of food each year to food banks and meal programs. This is equivalent to 17 million meals, or enough to provide dinner every night for one month to a city the size of Seattle.
*Food Lifeline had more than 4,400 volunteers who donated 24,710 hours of service with a value of more than $430,000 in labor.
*Food Lifeline trucks drove 136,543 miles -- the equivalent of driving around the world 5 times -- and received an average of four semi-trucks full of food weekly.
If you have the means, please donate to Feeding America today.
Donate directly with a credit card here, or donate in a number of other ways here.
Even $1 makes a difference.
Participating Diarists (all times Eastern):
Saturday, February 14, 2009
12 noon: noweasels
3 p.m.: Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse
6 p.m.: Hardhat Democrat
9 p.m.: boatsie
Overnight: JellyBearDemMom
Sunday, February 15, 2009
9 a.m.: blue jersey mom
12 noon: rb137 (You are here)
3 p.m.: Timroff
6 p.m.: Meteor Blades
9 p.m.: srkp23