{"id":13300,"date":"2022-12-10T10:16:03","date_gmt":"2022-12-10T15:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/?post_type=wfsu-news&p=13300"},"modified":"2022-12-14T16:10:36","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T21:10:36","slug":"food-banks-and-their-partners-see-the-need-continue-to-climb","status":"publish","type":"wfsu-news","link":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/food-banks-and-their-partners-see-the-need-continue-to-climb\/","title":{"rendered":"Food banks and their partners see the need continue to climb"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every other Saturday, a line of cars stretches across the grounds of the Shady Grove Number One Primitive Baptist Church in east Leon County. They\u2019re there for the church\u2019s biweekly food distribution. Last month the line was 150 cars, and it grows by about 10 households with each distribution. The need isn\u2019t going away.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is amazing to see the need, but even more to be in a position to meet the need, to do something about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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LaNorris McFadden is the senior pastor at Shady Grove. He\u2019s known as Pastor Mac. He majored in social science at Florida State University.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith some of our partners during all this, we did a needs assessment, and we put food, gas, utilities, help with rent — and shockingly, food was the number-one need,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t surprise Monique Ellsworth, the CEO of Second Harvest of the Big Bend. She says it\u2019s not uncommon for the food bank to get calls or meet people\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201c…where we hear about mom skipping her meals so that her children don\u2019t have to, grandparents skipping their meals so that their grandchildren don\u2019t have to,\u201d Ellsworth said. \u201cAnd so what we look to do as a food bank, with the partners across our community, is to stand in the gap so that families don\u2019t have to make food the item that they give up to make ends meet throughout the month.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

Shady Grove is one of those partners. It\u2019s nearly 143 years old and has about 350 members. Its food program began as the Harvest Time Food Bank Ministry, in which church members would leave bags of canned food on people\u2019s doorsteps. Then in 2017, the church founded Victory House as its 501c3 arm and reached out to Second Harvest and Farm Share for help.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough Second Harvest, we\u2019re also one of the crisis centers, so we have to keep certain amounts of food stored here so that if someone calls 211 and they\u2019re in this area and they need food, we\u2019re one of the places they come to receive that food. Especially during those storms, if people were displaced,\u201d said Pastor Mac.<\/p>\n

Hurricanes are also a major concern at Feeding Florida, which coordinates the 12 food banks — like Second Harvest of the Big Bend — that cover the state\u2019s 67 counties. Executive Director Robin Safley says they\u2019re providing support to people displaced or damaged by Hurricanes Ian and Nicole. And then there\u2019s inflation, which not only affects the individual households served\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201c…but it also affects our food banks\u2019 ability to purchase food as well as distribution because of gas prices,\u201d said Safley. \u201cIt\u2019s being pushed from both sides. We have more clients to deal with, but we also have higher costs at dealing with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, there are problems up and down the chain. Donor fatigue. Loss of volunteers due to Covid-19. Above all, poverty. Second Harvest of the Big Bend serves 11 counties, mostly rural ones, and will gain five more on January 1. Here\u2019s Ellsworth:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we find is that the number of people who are living at or below the poverty line — even if we just look at Leon County, which people oftentimes think of as being the most wealthy — it\u2019s still over half of the population of Leon County is living paycheck to paycheck,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Pastor Mac says at the start of the pandemic there were so many cars — roughly 500 — that sheriff\u2019s deputies would have to direct the traffic backed up from Highway 90. Normally, Victory House has enough acreage that the line doesn\u2019t extend off its property.<\/p>\n

The good news is that much of the food is healthy and fresh. Safley says about 35-40 percent of Feeding Florida\u2019s distribution is fresh produce or fruits. And Shady Grove has a garden ministry and grows vegetables for distribution. Pastor Mac says given the threat of diabetes, the church is very \u201cintentional\u201d about the food it provides.<\/p>\n

But Ellsworth says many people cut corners to their detriment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then they do that in a couple of ways. They\u2019re going to eat less food or they\u2019re going to begin purchasing food that costs less money,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that usually means that they\u2019re going to forgo more nutritional food and buy food that\u2019s highly processed. Junk food, unfortunately, is far less expensive than nutritious food.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

The providers are all working overtime and planning ahead. Feeding Florida and Second Harvest are doing nutrition education, to help people get more out of the food they receive.<\/p>\n

\u201c…the important role that nutrition plays in the stability of a family and how important that is that the food that we distribute as a network is not only the healthiest and has the best shelf life it can have, right?\u201d said Safley. \u201cBut it also needs to be given to that family in the right quantity so that we don\u2019t have waste somewhere else.”<\/p>\n

Victory House will soon have an in-house pantry called Winner\u2019s Market.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, it restores some dignity, like I\u2019m not in this food drive line, like I\u2019m able to come into this little small grocery store type of a place, pick my own food out, get what I want, what I don\u2019t want,\u201d said Pastor Mac. \u201cBut it restores some dignity. Because it takes a lot to come drive through a food bank line\u2026\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

But the food banks and their partners train volunteers to respect the dignity of people who need food.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just a moment in this family\u2019s life that is not defining who they are,\u201d Ellsworth said. \u201cIt\u2019s not highlighting character defects. This is just a tough moment for them. And our responsibility is to be there and stand in that space with them and make sure that they\u2019re not having to eat less or not eat to survive a really difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the food distributions need volunteers, money and support. <\/p>\n

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