BOOTHEEL FOOD BANK HIT BY CUTS

SIKESTON -- U.S. Agriculture Department budget cuts mean Missouri's six regional food banks -- including the Bootheel Food Bank in Sikeston -- will have to make up a huge deficit in the amount of food provided to them by the government.

The federal budget for the purchase of USDA food items was slashed from $80 million to $25 million annually, said Doreen Johnson, executive director of the Bootheel Food Bank.

The cuts amount to a 70 percent decrease in the 1995 allocation for commodities.

What that means is simple: "It means we won't have the amount of food we used to have to distribute to our agencies," Johnson said.

The full extent of the cuts will not be known until mid-November. The 1995 fiscal year started Oct. 1.

Distribution of the USDA commodity budget is overseen by the Missouri Division of Family Services, which met with food bank officials last week to discuss the cuts and how to find other food sources.

"We will be looking for alternative methods such as working with wholesale grocers to acquire products that are damaged or outdated," Johnson said. "Or having food drives.

"We will be looking for donations from the private sector more than ever before," she said.

The cuts come at a time when the food bank is helping an increasing number of people, Johnson said.

The Bootheel Food Bank supplies food to 200 charitable agencies over a 16-county area. Last year, those agencies distributed more than 92,000 food baskets to needy families.

Among the local agencies are the Jackson Food Pantry and Senior Center, and in Cape Girardeau the Bethesda Food Pantry, the Salvation Army, the Red Cross and several churches.

The Sikeston food bank is a member of the Second Harvest Food Bank Network. It receives some supplies from that organization.

Division of Family Services administrator Paul Spicer said the cuts will mean about 2.3 million fewer pounds of food available at Missouri food banks.

"We will lose about 1.3 million pounds of cornmeal, and the only remaining surplus to give away is butter - no cheese, no peanut butter, no flour," Spicer said.

He said food banks will have to rely upon local food drives and alternative programs, such as those involving farmers, for food.

"We're looking at other ways to make up the shortfall," Spicer said. "There is a program nationwide with potato growers who agree to donate about 1 million pounds of potatoes to us, and a farm program in Florida."

Officials say the state is trying to work out a formula that would be fair to all six regional food banks.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.