Food pantries feel crunch as families struggle
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Robert Auxer, a volunteer, pushes a cart for a patron at Northside Common Ministries' food pantry. -
A man shops at the Brighton Road food bank.
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At 9 a.m. sharp, the line outside began filling the waiting room at the Northside Common Ministries' food pantry. It wasn't a typical Wednesday; there aren't typical any days anymore.
The pantry on Brighton Road in California-Kirkbride is an inset of the larger picture in Allegheny County, where the struggle to put food on the table is growing roughly in line with state figures and a national upswing reported recently by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The USDA announced that 15 percent of all households weren't able to provide food for their families at various times in 2009. The numbers were similar in 2008 but represented a tripling of need since 2006.
Almost 100,000 more Pennsylvania households were receiving supplemental nutrition assistance, or food stamps, this October than last October, from 698,678 to 795,554, said Michael Race, spokesman for the state Department of Public Welfare.
In Allegheny County, the jump from last to this October was 17,000, for a total of 153,681.
Ken Regal, co-director of Just Harvest, a nonprofit that helps people enroll and tracks countywide numbers, said food stamp recipients in the county totaled 100,000 six years ago.
Based on comments from people seeking help to receive food stamps, he said, increasing numbers are new at being needy. Agencies that distribute food also saw demand jump this year with a marked increase in first-timers.
As volunteer Jana Thompson called out numbers for people to be checked in at the Northside pantry Wednesday, most people sat quietly with 40-foot stares.
Elizabeth Brown looked tired.
When her husband, "the main money-maker" died three years ago, she was left with a 10- and a 5-year-old. She worked part time at Allegheny General Hospital in housekeeping with help from her family, "but they couldn't help that much. They're having hard times themselves."
First Published December 5, 2010 12:00 am
