Area food pantries anticipate spike in need

Food pantries in Southeast Missouri expect an up-tick in food insecurity as Missouri pulls out of pandemic-era federal unemployment benefits.

In a release last month, Gov. Mike Parson announced the state would pull out of federal unemployment benefits related to the pandemic. The federal aid added an extra $300 a week to Missouri's usual unemployment benefits. Missouri officially opted out of the federal benefits June 12.

"Whenever unemployment benefits like those that people received during the pandemic are no longer available, people might not have funds to go to the grocery store and they're much more likely to turn to a food pantry," said Lisa Church, chief advocacy officer at Southeast Missouri Food Bank in Sikeston.

More than 45,000 Missouri residents filed unemployment claims this April, according to the Missouri Department of Labor.

Harold Duncan of St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry in Poplar Bluff has noticed a recent spike in patrons.

"The numbers are starting to come back up," Duncan said. "During the pandemic, when everybody was getting extra food stamps and extra unemployment and all that stuff, we saw a decrease in our numbers. Now that everything is starting to go back to normal, and everybody's going back to normal life, so to speak, our numbers are starting to increase."

Before the pandemic, Duncan said, St. Vincent's food pantry served between 700 and 800 families a month. Its service population dropped to nearly 400 families during the pandemic. Now, Duncan said his St. Vincent location services roughly 550 to 600 families.

Catholic Social Ministries Food Pantry in Cape Girardeau also saw a slight spike in need in the last month, according to James Keusenkothen, pastoral minister at St. Mary's Cathedral. St. Mary's co-runs Catholic Social Ministries Food Pantry with Old St. Vincent's Chapel of Ease.

The churches' food pantry typically served 620 families or 1,800 people a month. Keusenkothen said he noticed those numbers dip slightly during the pandemic, but now it's starting to creep back up.

"I'd say we're approaching around 500 families — a little bit less than our typical averages, but we're inching back towards that," Keusenkothen said.

St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry and the Catholic Social Ministry's food pantry are two of many places SEMO Food Bank distributes food to. The regional food bank services 143 charitable and disaster relief programs within its 16-county coverage area.

The food bank currently serves about 10% more people in its coverage area than what it served before the pandemic, according to Church.

The area SEMO Food Bank serves has some of the highest rates of hunger in the state, Church said. One in five children in Southeast Missouri live in homes without enough access to food.

Other factors that could affect regional food insecurity include spikes in gas and grocery prices. Church said the SEMO Food Bank has seen up to a 30% increase in fuel and food prices.

"Whenever we see those kinds of spikes, we do get concerned because we run a fleet of eight trucks that deliver food to pantries," Church said. "We need to make sure we acquire enough food to meet what the need is."

SEMO Food Bank also anticipates an increase in need every summer as children miss out on meals provided by schools.

Recently, however, the food bank has received two grants that will help sustain it during summer months.

Feeding America gave $70,000 to the food bank, which it will use to hold 26 mobile food pantries across 15 sites, many of them schools. Another grant from Enterprise Rent-a-Car will supply 20 to 30 pounds of groceries to children participating in summer feeding sites in Mississippi, New Madrid and Pemiscot counties.

To donate to the SEMO Food Bank or to find a food pantry nearby, visit www.semofoodbank.org.