Quarter-million Ozark residents use food pantries, according to new study

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- One morning last week, needy Springfield families lined up around a former church in Springfield.

There were single moms, working couples, families, the elderly and the disabled.

They walked or caught rides to Crimson House Ministries. They showed up hours before the food pantry opened and waited, as the cool morning turned into a warm afternoon.

"If it wasn't for the food pantries, I don't know what I'd do," said Tina Brewer, a disabled mom. "There's not a lot of money left in the budget for food."

A record number of Ozarks families are in the same tight spot, The Springfield News-Leader reported.

Nearly one out of every four people -- 261,300 of the nearly 1.2 million in the Ozarks Food Harvest's 28-county service area -- were served at least once last year at a food pantry, according to the new Hunger In America 2014 study.

It marked a 69 percent increase from the same study four years ago.

"The sheer number of folks accessing food from food pantries is unprecedented," said Bart Brown, executive director of the Ozarks Food Harvest. "I'd say alarming."

The requests for help have gone up, but so has the amount each person receives per visit. That amount has increased by 85 percent since the last study.

"Not only have we been able to keep up with the increased number of clients, we've nearly doubled the amount of food clients are receiving," he said.

The 2010 survey, conducted at the height of the recession, showed many former middle-class families had slipped into situational poverty. The needs, four years later, are even greater, and the average person asking for help from local food pantries has continued to evolve.

"That person is not who we think about stereotypically," he said.

Brown said it's critical to paint an accurate picture of today's poor so families will feel more comfortable asking for help and the community will better understand the need. He said despite record numbers receiving help, there are likely many others who can't overcome the shame to make a request.

"One of the most important things we can do is bust those stereotypes because there is such a tremendous stigma," he said of those who need assistance. "They're afraid they're going to be judged if they ask for help."

So who is hungry in the Ozarks? According to the national study, the average Ozarks Food Harvest client is:

* Most likely white, age 30 to 49, with a family of two or three.

"Essentially, the data shows that these demographics mirror the general population of our service area," he said. "So if you want to see the face of hunger in the Ozarks, you just have to look in a mirror."

* Parents are high school graduates.

* Nearly all rent or lease a home or apartment. Only 4 percent live in temporary housing such as a shelter, a hotel or on the streets.

But there is less stability than in the 2010 survey, when middle-class families were hit hard by the economic downturn.

"Fewer people own homes now than four years ago, but that makes sense because of the recession and all of the foreclosures," Brown said.

* They have medical bills to pay.

* They work, but 44 percent make less than $10,000 a year; 32 percent make between $10,001 and $20,000 a year.

"They're working but they're making very little wages," Brown said. "Most of them are living well below the poverty line."

Nearly 40 percent of families had a family member working within the past year. But the survey shows the jobs don't pay enough, or they're intermittent.

"One thing we find very common is they're either working multiple jobs or they're moving from low-wage job to low-wage job with the hope of getting 10 cents or a quarter more an hour," Brown said. "So there are multiple jobs and there are periods between jobs."

Among families where there isn't a person working, the majority are disabled or retired.

"We don't have a lot of able-bodied people who aren't working," he said. "They're either too young, too old or too sick."

Brewer, 45, falls into the last category. She is on disability because of debilitating arthritis and macular degeneration, a hereditary condition that robbed her left eye of sight.

Widowed in 2005, when her truck-driver husband was struck by a brain aneurysm, Brewer was left to raise her children alone. Lucas, 17, is the only child still at home.

Brewer receives disability, but the amount only covers rent and the bare necessities. Without accessing food pantries, she said there are times the family wouldn't eat.

"I can only go to the ones that are right here in the area because I have to walk," said Brewer, who can no longer see to drive. She doesn't have a car.

Recently, she went to Crimson House hours before the food distribution started. She lined up with a large empty duffel bag. Typically, she fills it and then pulls it up two flights of stairs to her apartment.

On this day, she found a neighbor willing to give her a ride. The woman offers to do the same in the future.

There are times, between trips to food pantries, that she is left with little in the house.

"We just don't know, literally from one month to another, what we're going to have," she said. "I grew up on a farm and I'm very resourceful, but sometimes I look [at what's left] and think, 'Now what?'"

That night, when son Lucas, 17, got home from school, he went straight to the refrigerator.

Instead of finding bare shelves, as usual, there was a big bag of grapes. Fresh vegetables, a dozen eggs and a full chicken were also being chilled.

"My son said 'I didn't know you were going to the pantry today,'" Brewer recalled. "It breaks my heart that he knows if we've got some decent stuff in the house, it means I must have gone to a pantry."

Without that food, Brewer would have had to break into an emergency stash.

If food pantries hand out canned hams or military ready-to-eat packets, she'll hoard those as a food "security blanket" in case she gets too sick to go to the pantry or they don't have enough for her family.

During the school year, the food pantries near Brewer are open during business hours on weekdays, when she is home alone.

Last Wednesday, she picked up a cookie sheet birthday cake at the pantry. She will freeze it so Lucas has something sweet when he turns 18 at the end of September.

The holidays are months away, but they're already stressing her out.

"[Lucas] asked me last night if we're going to have a turkey," she said. "I told him we always manage but in the back of my mind, I think, 'Is this going to be the year that I don't?'"

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Information from: Springfield News-Leader, http://www.news-leader.com