SANTA
ROSA, November 19, 2008
- As Sonoma County enters the holiday
season when food and family take
center stage in most lives, food
pantries on the front lines of hunger
are reporting more and more people
are needing help.
Volunteers for church and community
food relief programs in Santa Rosa,
Rohnert Park and the west county
all say lines of food recipients
have grown steadily over the past
year with a sudden spike during
recent months.
At the same time, the pantries report,
donations are down requiring them
to rely more and more on the Redwood
Empire Food Bank for fresh fruits,
vegetables, bread, canned and packaged
food and other staples.
"We really need the food bank's
help because without it we would
shut the doors," said Barbara
Fogle, a volunteer for the Knox
Presbyterian Church weekly pantry
on West Third Street in Santa Rosa.
David Goodman, Executive Director
of the REFB, said the economic downturn
is straining the community safety
net against hunger to its limits,
requiring a generous response during
the REFB's annual current three-month
food and fund drive.
"We're stretched, too,"
said Goodman. "By all accounts,
hunger is increasing. The pantries
we serve are seeing more people,
and in Washington the Department
of Agriculture this week reported
that the number of people who haven't
enough to eat increased by 700,000
last year and the number of children
who went hungry rose by 50 percent."
"That's why this year's annual
appeal for contributions is so important.
We can't serve the pantries that
operate in every community of the
county unless everyone pitches in,"
Goodman said.
The annual drive was launched Nov.
1 and extends through Jan. 31.
Steve Bousshard, who volunteers
at Neighbors Organized Against Hunger,
says demand has almost doubled in
a year at the Rohnert Park pantry
called NOAH.
"We were serving 160 to 180
families every week last year,"
he said. "Now we're serving
from 240 to 280 families and these
are families with two, three, four
and five members. Our numbers are
running constantly higher."
Bousshard credits the economy.
"People are getting laid off.
People are struggling," he
said.
In Occidental where emergency food
is distributed to about 100 families
every month at St. Philip's Catholic
Church, coordinator Sheila Hansen
said the economic downturn is reflected
in an increase in the number of
single men over the past several
months.
"We had 19 single people, mostly
men, in August," she said.
"That went up to 36 in September
so we're starting to really feel
the crunch of the economy."
At the Sebastopol Inter-Church Pantry,
coordinator Mary McAulay reported
a spike in demand was demonstrated
recently when phone calls for help
were so many that volunteers finally
quit answering the phone so they
could fill orders.
"There was real desperation
on that Saturday," McAulay
said. "We're definitely seeing
a real up tick of people needing
our help."
At the FISH Pantry on Benton Street
in Santa Rosa, Ron Shirley said
requests for help have increased
by almost 2,000 every month in the
last several years.
"Our stats have gone from 3,500
to 4,000 to now when we're doing
about 5,200 on the average per month,"
he said. "It's climbed over
2,000 in the last couple of years."
Shirley also said the need seems
to be throughout the county. He
said the Santa Rosa FISH Pantry
provides assistance to people who
come from Petaluma, Healdsburg,
Forestville as well as Santa Rosa.
In addition to a slack economy,
Shirley cites rising food costs.
"Pasta is up. Rice is up through
the ceiling. Cereal is up. A box
of cereal that weighs a pound costs
$4. That's ridiculous," he
said. "People just can't afford
to buy what they used to."
Goodman hopes the REFB's annual
winter food and fund drive will
raise $625,000 by the end of December.
"We distribute about 11 million
pounds of food a year and most of
it – 85 percent – comes from outside
of the community," he said.
"So we need funds to pay for
transporting food to our warehouse
in Santa Rosa and then to pantries
all over the county."
The REFB is the largest food bank
on the Northern California coast
from the Golden Gate Bridge to the
Oregon border. Working with 133
partner agencies, the REFB provides
food to some 60,000 people a month
in Sonoma County alone and it is
the primary source for food for
pantries in Lake, Mendocino, Humboldt
and Del Norte counties.
In addition to cash donations, Lee
Bickley, REFB Community Relations
Manager, said the REFB needs to
collect 185,000 pounds of food from
Sonoma County residents.
Non perishable foods go directly
on REFB shelves and then out to
REFB-supported pantries and kitchens.
Sonoma County residents are seeing
the annual REFB winter food drive
in their local stores, the businesses
they frequent, and schools.
The Press Democrat earlier this
month inserted a REFB Holiday Food
Drive supermarket shopping bag in
newspapers distributed to some 51,800
Sonoma County subscribers.
People are asked to fill the bags
with canned or packaged food and
deposit them in REFB barrels at
Safeway, Lucky, Whole Foods and
G&G food stores, Longs Drugs,
or the REFB office at 3320 Industrial
Drive in Santa Rosa. No home-made
food or food in glass containers
can be accepted.
The Press Democrat shopping bag
also included an envelope people
can use to send checks to the REFB.
Shopping bags also are available
at the Santa Rosa Avenue Friedman's
Home Improvement store where 2,000
bags will be distributed at check-out
stands. And individuals and community
food drives will make 4,500 bags
available to people wanting to donate.
Bickley said about 270 individuals,
businesses and schools are conducting
food drives this year and it's not
too late for other individuals or
organizations to join the effort.
Anyone wanting to launch a food
drive can order a REFB barrel, small
food boxes and holiday food bags
for collections. Call 707-523-7900
or go to the REFB web site, www.refb.org,
to get a special Food Drive Kit.
For people wanting to make cash
donations, there are three options:
The
REFB Winter Food and Fund Drive
is part of a larger, Bay Area wide
effort to fight hunger. Other food
drives include:
Share Your Holidays, a joint Safeway-ABC7
TV food drive. Money canisters have
been placed at check-out stands,
along with barrels in all stores.
Donors who give $250 will get their
name read on the air by ABC7's Spencer
Christian from Nov. 17 through Thanksgiving.
Lucky-NBC John Farley Holiday Drive
invites customers to purchase $10
and $20 bags of food to place in
lobby barrels for the REFB through
Christmas Eve. The Kiwanis Club
will have members at all Lucky Stores
on Saturday, Nov. 22, to collect
funds for the REFB and promote the
drive.
The Whole Foods-CBS5 Food for Bay
Area Families Drive will place barrels
in all Whole Foods stores, and on
Dec. 9, 5 percent of that day's
net sales will be donated to REFB.
The annual Press Democrat Holiday
Bag Campaign is supported by leading
Sonoma County businesses. They include:
Premier Sponsor: Ramey Wine Cellars
VIP Sponsors: Friedman's Home Improvement,
HoHum Conco, North Coast Builder's
Exchange, Kaiser Permanente, Neonatal
Network, The Press Democrat
Sponsors: Andy's Produce, Westamerica
Bank, The Krush, Clover Stornetta,
TLCD Architecture.
For more information, call Lee Bickley
at 707-523-7900. |
