Southeast Missouri food banks, pantries fighting hunger during holidays

Dawn Grammar pushed the grocery cart toward her car, full of food she didn't have to pay for -- couldn't have paid for, even if she had wanted.

A turkey. Milk. Bread. Canned vegetables. A few other items.

Not much, really, but there wouldn't be a Christmas dinner without it.

"If I wasn't able to come to the Salvation Army, it would have really been tough," Grammar said Thursday.

Grammar, a Cape Girardeau resident, was laid off from her job three years ago. Her husband works, but finances are still tight. This food will feed her large family, including her two children and four grandchildren.

Area food banks and pantry workers say hunger exists year-round, but it perhaps becomes more pressing during the holidays. About 94 percent of low-income families in the U.S. reported in 2010 that they could not afford to eat balanced meals, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture survey. About 29 percent of respondents said that an adult did not eat for a whole day because there was not enough money for food, and 22 percent reported that happened routinely.

Kelly Elizalde unloads a donation of canned corn, green beans and peas for the Salvation Army pantry Thursday in Cape Girardeau. (Laura Simon)

In Southeast Missouri, dozens of agencies are trying to curb those statistics. On Wednesday and Thursday, the Salvation Army gave away nearly 500 food baskets to area residents. That's up from 450 last year, which was higher than the year before that, case manager Tina Rodgers said.

The food is largely donated from businesses, individuals and other organizations, she said. The demand remains high, Rodgers said, as it has been since the economy went south.

"Food prices are going up," Rodgers said. "A lot of people are working, but they still struggle."

The Southeast Missouri Food Bank is one of the largest food banks in the region, serving 16 rural counties and more than 9,000 square miles. The agency serves more than 150 food pantries and soup kitchens.

The need is growing every month, said Amanda Winschel, the children's program manager. Its mobile food pantry feeds about 300 families with each distribution, she said.

The agency is serving 50,000 people every month through its various programs, up from 35,000 to 40,000 last year, she said. The need, however, she said, is about 70,000 people.

"We're still trying to fill that gap," she said.

People are being forced to make difficult choices, such as whether to pay for bills, medicine or food.

"If you can eat or have the heat on, that's a tough call to make," she said.

Hunger strikes children as well. The food bank also serves about 500 children through its backpack program, in which they send food home with needy children at 24 Southeast Missouri schools so they have something to eat over the weekend. That number, too, has grown, she said. Last May, the number was 260 children.

"We had a third-grader at Jefferson School who said he was the man of the house because he brought food home for his family," Winschel said.

The Jackson Ministerial Alliance Food Pantry serves 170 families a month, said alliance president the Rev. Sam Roethemeyer. This year, they've seen people who have never needed help before. These people have talked about losing their jobs, personal tragedies and other circumstances that have made buying food difficult.

"The hunger problem is tremendous," Roethemeyer said. "We're just a microcosm of every other place, and we're trying to meet the need as best we can."

The FISH Food Pantry has seen a consistently high level of need since the economy turned, vice president Paul Kabo said. FISH helps 3,000 to 3,500 people a year in Cape Girardeau. In 2010, the agency helped feed 3,683 people.

"When the economic bust happened, we jumped," Kabo said. "People are talking about their economic difficulty. They have just used up their resources. They're maxed out, and now they're looking for food because they've just come up short."

smoyers@semissourian.com

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Cape Girardeau, MO

Jackson, MO